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is^iiiliii^iiiiliii^ii^ 


PRINTERS  : 

WHITEHEAD   AND    MILLER,    LTD. 

LEEDS. 


THE  MURDER  OF 
EDWIN    DROOD 


•^ 


[FroiUispiece 


THE   MURDER  OF 
EDWIN     DROOD- 

RECOUNTED   BY   JOHN   JASPER 


BEING 


An    Attempted     Solution    of     the    Mystery   based    on 
Dickens'  Manuscript  and  Memoranda. 

BY 

PERCY    T.    GARDEN 


AN    INTRODUCTION. 

BY 

B.   W.   MATZ. 


G.    P.     PUTNAM'S     SONS 

N  EW    York 

1920 


PRINTERS  : 

WHITEHEAD    AND    MILLER,    LTD., 

LEEDS. 


INDEX 


PAGE 

List  of  Illustrations         . .  . .         . .  viii 

Introduction  by  B.  W.  Matz         ix 

Author's  Preface xiii 

The  Manuscript  Begins i 

Episode  I.         Dead  and  Buried  ..         ..         ..         ..       7 

II.  A  Key  and  its  Keeper 19 

III.  Accounts  for  the  Unaccountable     . .         . .     27 

IV.  The  Engaged  Couple        . .         . .         . .         .  •     43 

V.  The  Green-Eyed  Monster  49 

VI.  Mr.  Jasper  Proposes        . .         . .         . .         . .     63 

VII.  On  Secret  Service  . .         . .         . .         . .     69 

VIII.  Landless  Proposes  79 

IX.  The  Third  Dawn 89 

X.  Helena's  Part        . .         . .         . ,         . .         . .   103 

XI.  Flight  and  Pursuit  . .         . .         . .         . .   109 

The  Manuscript  Ends  115 

Postscript         ..         ..         ,.         ..         .,         ..         ..         ..116 

Appendices        ..         ..         ..         ..         ..         ..         ..         ..   ng 


465i..:;'^ 


LIST    OF    ILLUSTRATIONS. 


TO  FACE 
PAGE 

Frontispiece  V 


John  Jasper's  Gateway           . .          9 

Ordnance  Survey  Map             . .         . .         . .         . .         . .  13 

The  Cathedral  and  Precincts  (From  800  Feet)            . .  15 

DuRDLES  Cautions  Sapsea  Against  Boasting       . .          . .  29 

The  Cathedral  and  Precincts  (From  500  Feet)             . ,  37 

"  The  Mystery  of  Edwin  Drood."     (Original  Cover  81 
Drawing) 


INTRODUCTION 

BY 

B.   W.   MATZ. 

NEVER  having  attempted  to  solve  the  wonderful 
mystery  woven  into  Dickens'  unfinished  story, 
and  thereby  being  innocent  of  marked  prejudices 
regarding  the  numerous  knotty  problems  it  presents  to 
those  who  delve  deeply  into  its  intricacies,  I  have  no 
misgivings  in  complying  with  the  invitation  to  write  a 
few  prefatory  words  to  this,  the  latest  endeavour  to 
unravel  the  tangled  threads  of  the  story's  fabric. 

I  am,  however,  an  enthusiastic  student  of  the 
problem,  content  with  the  fascination  derived  from 
following  the  many  by-ways  traversed  by  all  those  who 
seek  to  lead  others  to  a  solution.  That  there  have  been 
many  such  guides  a  long  row  of  books  and  pamphlets 
bear  witness.  Alluring  in  themselves,  each  book  in  its 
own  different  way  contributes  something  to  the  in- 
tellectual exercise  which  the  minute  study  of  the  subject 
offers. 

I  suppose  every  reader  of  Edwin  Drood  laments 
bitterly  that  it  comes  to  so  abrupt  an  end,  and  few  lay  it 
aside  without  some  thought  as  to  how  it  was  to  terminate 
had  Dickens  Hved  to  finish  it.  Many  devote  to  the 
mystery  something  more  than  the  concession  of  a  passing 
thought,  and  some  attempt  with  scholarly  instinct  to 
unravel  its  mysteries  for  themselves,  and  evolve  theories 
concerning  its  probable  ending  until  they  are  caught 


Introduction 


by  the  fever  of  its  subtle  spell.  And  so  the  readers  of 
the  book  are  divided  into  two  classes  :  those  who  are 
badly  attacked  by  the  fever  and  those  who  prove  to 
be  immune.  The  former  have  come  to  be  dubbed 
"  Droodists,"  and  it  is  for  these  that  scientific  efforts 
to  solve  the  problem,  of  which  Mr.  Garden's  is  one,  have 
their  chief  interest  and  attraction.  Although  the  one 
and  true  solution  may  never  definitely  be  discovered, 
there  is  no  doubt  that  every  fresh  study  of  the  book 
reveals  something  helpful  towards  that  end,  and  for  that 
reason  has  its  particular  value.  In  this  way,  one  point, 
hitherto  debatable,  has  been  established  with  sufi&cient 
surety  to  put  it  beyond  doubt :  John  Jasper  actually 
murdered  his  nephew.  Mr.  Garden  starts  off  from  that 
hypothesis,  and  I  am  naturally  in  complete  agreement 
with  him  on  that  point. 

The  other  main  question  which  confronts  and 
baffles  all  students  is  that  of  the  Datchery  assumption. 
That  Datchery  is  one  of  the  characters  of  the  book  in 
disguise  is  generally  agreed,  and  each  of  those  who 
could  possibly  have  filled  that  role  has  in  turn  been 
suggested,  and  the  individual  cases  presented  and  argued 
by  previous  writers.  The  weeding  out  process  leaves 
as  most  likely  Helena  Landless,  Bazzard  and  Tartar. 
The  strongest  claim  has  been  for  Helena  Landless,  whilst 
Bazzard  has  been  a  favourite  second.  Mr.  Garden 
chooses  Tartar,  and  his  case  for  the  sailor  is  much  the 
best  that  has  yet  been  presented.  In  arriving  at  this 
conclusion  he  is  able  also  to  find  an  important  part 
for  Helena  to  perform  quite  in  keeping  with  the  pecuhar 
and   distinctive   traits  in  her  character,   traits  which 


Introduction  xi 


Dickens  so  often  insists  in  revealing,  and  chiefly  for  which 
she  has  been  singled  out  as  the  fitting  person  to  enact 
the  part.  Bazzard  too,  is  found  work  by  Mr.  Garden 
suitable  to  his  disposition  and  far  more  in  keeping  with 
his  nature  than  that  of  playing  at  being  a  detective. 

But  Mr.  Garden's  book  appeals  to  me  as  one  of  the 
most  important  contributions  to  the  subject  by  virtue 
of  the  fact  that  he  has  read  and  studied  carefully  every 
word  of  the  manuscript  and  of  the  notes  which  Dickens 
prepared  for  his  own  guidance,  and  has  collated  them 
with  the  printed  book.  The  result  is  his  discovery  of 
certain  erasures  and  alterations  in  the  manuscript 
which  help  him  to  come  to  certain  conclusions,  not 
possible  without  this  close  study  and  comparison. 
These  include  certain  passages  which  Dickens  wrote  and 
which  were  not  pubHshed,  one  of  which  refers  to  Dur- 
dles's  yard,  and  the  possibility  of  Jasper  avaiUng  himself 
of  it  in  conjunction  with  his  use  of  quick-lime  in  the 
execution  of  his  deed.  He  also  has  been  able  to  locate 
at  Rochester  the  site  of  Durdles's  yard,  which  makes  his 
theory  regarding  the  manner  of  the  murder  and  the 
attempted  concealment  of  it  locally  quite  possible. 

His  reading  too  of  the  cover  design  is  most  in- 
genious and  quite  consistent  with  his  theory.  The  figure 
kneeling  to  Rosa  on  the  left  hand  side  he  claims  to  be 
Neville  Landless,  for  he  discovers  internal  evidence 
that  Neville  had  a  moustache — a  real  piece  of  the 
Sherlock  Holmes  method. 

But  perhaps  the  most  important  and  interesting 
discovery  he  has  made  is  the  exact  date  of  the  story 
which  almost  eerily  fits  the  context  in  every  detail, 


xii  Introduction 


including  even  the  topography  of  Rochester  and  the 
neighbourhood  at  the  time  the  story  was  being  enacted. 
This  enables  him  to  work  out  the  complete  chronology 
of  events  to  the  surmounting  of  the  hitherto  arguable 
point  concerning  the  phrase  "  at  about  this  time,"  at 
the  beginning  of  chapter  xviii. 

Altogether,  Mr.  Garden  has  made  a  notable  con- 
tribution to  the  solution  of  the  ever  green  and  ever 
baffling  puzzle,  and  although,  of  course,  it  is  not  supposed 
that  everyone  will  be  in  agreement  with  his  theories, 
few  will  dispute  the  care  and  reason  he  employs  in  stating 
his  case  or  his  competency  to  deal  with  the  whole  problem. 

Mr.  Garden  is  a  newcomer  in  the  game  as  he  calls  it 
— a  game  the  greatest  danger  to  which  he  thinks  is  lest 
it  should  one  da}^  end  in  a  complete  solution.  In  the 
meantime,  he  enters  the  centre  court,  and  with  his 
effective  strokes,  fresh  methods  and  new  ideas,  is  sure  to 
stimulate  the  other  players  and  attract  the  onlookers, 
for  throughout  he  exhibits  a  sane,  good-natured  and 
dignified  attitude.  For  these  reasons  his  performance 
is  worthy  of  careful  study  and  consideration  in  con- 
junction and  in  comparison  with  those  of  the  "  Older 
Hands,"  who  have  done  so  much  to  make  the  game  such 
a  fine  and  skilful  pastime. 


AUTHOR'S  PREFACE. 

"  np'HE  Murder  of  Edwin  Drood  "  has  been  chosen 
J[  as  the  title  of  this  book  because,  in  the  author's 
opinion,  doubt  is  no  longer  possible  that  Edwin 
Drood  was  murdered.  If  the  intrinsic  evidence  afforded 
by  the  book,  strong  as  it  is,  is  not  thought  to  be  con- 
clusive, yet  there  remain  the  added  testimionies  of  Charles 
Dickens'  son,  of  his  biographer  and  of  his  illustrator, 
and  these  render  almost  inevitable  a  verdict  of  "  wilful 
murder  "  against  John  Jasper. 

The  originality  of  the  story,  had  Dickens  lived  to 
complete  it,  was  to  have  consisted  in  "  the  review  of  the 
murderer's  career  by  himself  at  the  close,  when  its 
temptations  were  to  be  dwelt  upon  as  if  not  he,  the 
culprit,  but  some  other  man  were  the  tempted."  So 
Forster  tells  us  in  his  "  Life  of  Charles  Dickens."  The  last 
chapters  of  the  book  were  to  have  been  written  in  the  con- 
demned cell,  and  it  is  for  this  reason  that  the  present 
story  takes  the  form  of  a  manuscript  confession  by 
Jasper  of  his  crime.  But  since  Jasper's  wickedness  was 
to  have  been  "  all  elaborately  elicited  from  him  as  if 
told  of  another,"  the  narrative  has  been  framed  im- 
personally in  a  series  of  episodes  made  to  read  hke  a 
novel  rather  than  the  confession  or  autobiography  of 
a  murderer.  The  introductory  and  the  concluding  por- 
tions, however,  are  supposed  to  have  been  penned  in  the 
first  person  by  Jasper  in  his  condemned  cell.  These 
portions  are  in  fact  taken  (with  such  slight  adaptations 


xiv  Author's  Preface 


as  the  purpose  for  which  they  are  borrowed  renders 
necessary)  from  the  short  story  which  Dickens  named 
"  A  confession  found  in  a  prison  in  the  time  of  Charles 
the  Second."  This  Httle  read  story  appears  in  "  Master 
Humphrey's  Clock."  It  is  not  perhaps  a  perfect  tale, 
but  certainly  it  is  a  "  strong  "  one.  It  tells  the  story 
of  the  murder  by  an  uncle  of  his  brother's  child  aged 
four  or  five.  The  body  was  unearthed  by  bloodhounds 
from  its  grave  beneath  the  chair  the  cowering  murderer 
was  then  seated  upon .  After  condemnation  the  murderer 
reviews  his  own  career  and  (speaking  posthumously 
from  his  prison  cell)  sets  down  on  paper  a  critical  analysis 
of  his  morbid  mind  and  motives.  The  author  has 
ventured  to  draw  upon  this  story  to  supply  the  atmo- 
sphere of  a  Confession  such  as  Dickens  had  intended  to 
ehcit  from  Jasper. 

An  apology  is  no  doubt  expected  from  the  author 
for  this  addition  to  the  already  astounding  Ubrary  of 
books  on  Edwin  Drood.  He  will  also,  perhaps,  be  ex- 
pected to  explain  what  kind  of  book  it  is  that  he  has 
attempted  to  achieve.  Is  it  a  sequel  or  a  solution  ? 
Continuations  and  sequels,  Mr.  Cuming  Walters  has  said, 
must  be  sharply  distinguished  from  theories  and 
solutions.  The  writers  of  sequels,  he  has  truly  added, 
have  "  cut  the  Gordian  knot  rather  than  untied  it." 
The  solutionists,  on  the  other  hand,  have  honestly 
attempted  extrication.  If  the  author  must  be  classified 
with  one  of  these,  he  naturally  prefers  penning  as  a  sheep 
with  the  solutionists  to  casting  forth  from  the  fold  with 
the  continuation  goats.  His  claim  to  be  a  sheep  is  that 
he  has  honestly  attempted  extrication  of  some  among 


Author's  Preface  xv 


the  many  mysteries  of  Edwin  Drood.  He  makes  no  claim 
to  have  completed  the  masterpiece  which  Charles 
Dickens  of  immortal  memory  has  left  unfinished.  Only 
the  unknown  sculptor  of  the  famous  Venus  could  com- 
plete that  statue  as  a  work  of  art.  But  a  very  sorry 
artist  might  have  the  luck  to  solve  the  mysteries  of  its 
complete  construction  and  by  means  of  a  conjecturally 
completed  statue  would  best  convey  the  original  artist's 
notion. 

Good  wine  needs  no  bush,  and  no  apology  is  needed 
for  publishing  unpublished  words  of  Dickens.  The 
manuscript  of  Edwin  Drood  is  in  the  Forster  collection 
at  the  Victoria  and  Albert  Museum,  South  Kensington, 
and  is  open  to  public  inspection.  Just  before  the  war 
it  occurred  to  the  present  author  to  study  this  manu- 
script minutely.  He  was  rewarded  by  the  discovery 
of  passages  unmistakably  written  by  Dickens  which  have 
never  appeared  in  print.  He  has  transcribed  these 
passages.  They  will  be  found  incorporated  and  duly 
noted  in  this  book.  He  also  scrutinized  very  carefully 
for  clues,  the  "  Plans  "  for  Edwin  Drood  that  Dickens 
jotted  for  his  personal  use  and  studied  microscopically 
such  of  the  alterations,  deletions  and  interUneations  in 
the  manuscript  and  proofs  as  are  decipherable.  These 
new  discoveries  proved  of  value  and  one  excision  in 
particular  threw  out  a  hint  by  which  the  author  has  been 
enabled  as  he  beheves,  to  solve  a  mystery  that  has 
baffled  other  solvers.  It  concerns  the  quick-Hme. 
{See  App.  IV). 

Cloisterham,  as  the  student  of  the  Mystery  is  of 
course  aware,  is  Rochester.     There  was  no  spire  in  those 


xvi  Author's  Preface 

days,  but  otherwise  the  Cathedral  and  its  precincts 
have  changed  but  Uttle  since  the  night  when  Jasper 
looked  down  from  the  Cathedral  Tower  "  on  Cloisterham 
fair  to  see  in  the  moonlight ;  its  ruined  habitations 
and  sanctuaries  of  the  dead  at  the  Tower's  base ;  its 
moss-softened  red  tiled  roofs  and  red-brick  houses  of 
the  living  clustering  beyond  ;  its  river  winding  down 
from  the  mist  on  the  horizon,  as  though  that  were  its 
source,  and  already  heaving  with  a  restless  knowledge 
of  its  approach  towards  the  sea."  Like  Jasper  we 
are  privileged  to  view  this  scene  ;  but  by  daylight  and 
from  a  point  of  vantage  higher  even  than  the  tower  top. 
Sailing  high  above  the  City  in  a  sea-plane  the  camera's 
uncanny  eye  unrolls  the  picture  like  a  map  beneath  us. 
Then  falling  to  800  feet  we  view  the  scene  as  Jasper  saw 
it,  but  without  the  tower's  obstruction  which  blocked 
the  view  behind  him.  There,  spread  out  before  us, 
is  the  whole  scene  of  the  murder  and  the  journey  Jasper 
was  engaged  upon.  Next,  coming  very  low  we  get  a 
splendid  view  of  the  graves  in  one  of  which  was  Edwin's 
"  final  destination "  ;  and  can  follow  too  the  route 
which  Jasper  took  to  carry  quick-Hme  to  it  ;  after  which 
we  skim  the  leaded  roofs  which  Jasper  scrambled 
over  and  fly  back  to  the  sea-plane  station  on  the 
river. 

To  Major  Sippe,  D.S.O.,  of  Short  Bros.,  Ltd.,  the 
author  tenders  his  most  grateful  thanks  for  these  air 
photographs  of  Rochester.  Without  them  it  would  have 
been  impossible  to  convey  that  local  knowledge  which 
is  essential  to  a  true  understanding  of  the  Mystery. 
They  were  taken  expressly  for  this  book  by  a  "  Short  " 


Author's  Preface  xvii 

sea-plane  on  the  23rd  of  March,  in  response  to  a  simple 
telephone  enquiry  by  the  author's  friend  Mr.  C.  G. 
Grey,  the  Editor  of  The  Aeroplane,  and  quite  gratui- 
tuously.  The  author  thanks  and  congratulates  the 
pilot,  Mr.  Vance  E.  Galloway,  and  the  photographic 
staff  of  Short  Bros.,  Ltd.,  most  heartily. 

"  There  seem  to  be  tens  of  thousands  of  persons  in 
this  country  "  (writes  a  hostile  critic  of  "  this  eternal 
controversy  ")  "  who  worry  over  the  Drood  problem 
as  chess  enthusiasts  do  over  mates  in  five  moves." 
The  accusation  is  a  true  one  and  need  not  have  been 
limited  to  this  country.  But  why  should  we  not  ? 
Is  it  not  "  an  amiable  hobby  that  shies  at  nothing  and 
kicks  nobody  ?  "  Might  not  we  ten  thousand  have  been 
worse  employed  ?  "  Yes,  but  it  leads  nowhere,"  the 
critic  answers  "  the  Mystery  is  insoluble  and  the  solu- 
tionists  merely  contradict  each  other."  That  accusa- 
tion is  not  true.  Step  by  step  the  many  mysteries  are 
being  solved.  The  greatest  danger  is  lest  the  game 
one  day  should  have  an  end  in  a  complete  solution. 
But  that  day  is  not  yet.  To  his  mentors  in  this  game 
the  author  tenders  thanks  for  the  pleasure  he  has  had 
from  it.  He  would  name  especially  Professor  Henry 
Jackson  {About  Edwin  Drood),  Mr.  Montagu  Saunders 
(The  Mystery  in  the  Drood  Family),  and  Mr.  Cuming 
Walters  {The  Complete  Edwin  Drood).  Of  Mr.  G.  F. 
Gadd  {The  Case  for  Tartar)  the  author's  temptation  is 
to  sa}^   "  pereant  qui  ante  nos  nostra,"   etc. 

Besides  these  and  others,  the  author  has  received 
welcome  assistance  from  his  brother  Major  E.  D.  Garden, 
who  enlarged  and  adapted  for  him  the  Ordnance  Map  of 


xvi  Author's  Preface 

days,  but  otherwise  the  Cathedral  and  its  precincts 
have  changed  but  Uttle  since  the  night  when  Jasper 
looked  down  from  the  Cathedral  Tower  "  on  Cloisterham 
fair  to  see  in  the  moonlight ;  its  ruined  habitations 
and  sanctuaries  of  the  dead  at  the  Tower's  base ;  its 
moss-softened  red  tiled  roofs  and  red-brick  houses  of 
the  living  clustering  beyond  ;  its  river  winding  down 
from  the  mist  on  the  horizon,  as  though  that  were  its 
source,  and  already  heaving  with  a  restless  knowledge 
of  its  approach  towards  the  sea."  Like  Jasper  we 
are  privileged  to  view  this  scene  ;  but  by  daylight  and 
from  a  point  of  vantage  higher  even  than  the  tower  top. 
Sailing  high  above  the  City  in  a  sea-plane  the  camera's 
uncanny  eye  unrolls  the  picture  like  a  map  beneath  us. 
Then  falling  to  800  feet  we  view  the  scene  as  Jasper  saw 
it,  but  without  the  tower's  obstruction  which  blocked 
the  view  behind  him.  There,  spread  out  before  us, 
is  the  whole  scene  of  the  murder  and  the  journey  Jasper 
was  engaged  upon.  Next,  coming  very  low  we  get  a 
splendid  view  of  the  graves  in  one  of  which  was  Edwin's 
"  final  destination "  ;  and  can  follow  too  the  route 
which  Jasper  took  to  carry  quick-lime  to  it  ;  after  which 
we  skim  the  leaded  roofs  which  Jasper  scrambled 
over  and  fly  back  to  the  sea-plane  station  on  the 
river. 

To  Major  Sippe,  D.S.O.,  of  Short  Bros.,  Ltd.,  the 
author  tenders  his  most  grateful  thanks  for  these  air 
photographs  of  Rochester.  Without  them  it  would  have 
been  impossible  to  convey  that  local  knowledge  which 
is  essential  to  a  true  understanding  of  the  Mystery. 
They  were  taken  expressly  for  this  book  by  a  "  Short  " 


Author's  Preface  xvii 

sea-plane  on  the  23rd  of  March,  in  response  to  a  simple 
telephone  enquiry  by  the  author's  friend  Mr.  C.  G. 
Grey,  the  Editor  of  The  Aeroplane,  and  quite  gratui- 
tuously.  The  author  thanks  and  congratulates  the 
pilot,  Mr.  Vance  E.  Galloway,  and  the  photographic 
staff  of  Short  Bros.,  Ltd.,  most  heartily. 

"  There  seem  to  be  tens  of  thousands  of  persons  in 
this  country  "  (writes  a  hostile  critic  of  "  this  eternal 
controversy  ")  "  who  worry  over  the  Drood  problem 
as  chess  enthusiasts  do  over  mates  in  five  moves." 
The  accusation  is  a  true  one  and  need  not  have  been 
limited  to  this  country.  But  why  should  we  not  ? 
Is  it  not  "  an  amiable  hobby  that  shies  at  nothing  and 
kicks  nobody  ?  "  Might  not  we  ten  thousand  have  been 
worse  employed  ?  "  Yes,  but  it  leads  nowhere,"  the 
critic  answers  "  the  Mystery  is  insoluble  and  the  solu- 
tionists  merely  contradict  each  other."  That  accusa- 
tion is  not  true.  Step  by  step  the  many  mysteries  are 
being  solved.  The  greatest  danger  is  lest  the  game 
one  day  should  have  an  end  in  a  complete  solution. 
But  that  day  is  not  yet.  To  his  mentors  in  this  game 
the  author  tenders  thanks  for  the  pleasure  he  has  had 
from  it.  He  would  name  especially  Professor  Henry 
Jackson  (About  Edwin  Drood),  Mr.  Montagu  Saunders 
(The  Mystery  in  the  Drood  Family),  and  Mr.  Cuming 
Walters  (The  Complete  Edwin  Drood).  Of  Mr.  G.  F. 
Gadd  (The  Case  for  Tartar)  the  author's  temptation  is 
to  say  "  pereant  qui  ante  nos  nostra,"  etc. 

Besides  these  and  others,  the  author  has  received 
welcome  assistance  from  his  brother  Major  E.  D.  Garden, 
who  enlarged  and  adapted  for  him  the  Ordnance  Map  of 


xviii  Author's  Preface 


Rochester,  and  in  a  very  special  degree  from  Mr.  B.  W. 
Matz,  but  for  whose  approval,  encouragement  and 
assistance,  this  book  would  not  have  been  published. 


THE  MANUSCRIPT  BEGINS. 


THE   MURDER  OF 
EDWIN      DROOD 

THE    MANUSCRIPT    BEGINS. 

THIS  is  the  last  night  I  have  to  Uve,  and  I  will  set 
down  the  naked  truth  without  disguise.  I  am 
a    double     murderer. 

I  was  never  a  cheerful  or  a  happy  man.  From 
childhood  I  have  always  been  of  a  solemn,  sombre, 
secret  nature. 

I  speak  of  myself  as  if  I  had  passed  from  the  world, 
for  while  I  write  this,  my  grave  is  digging  and  my  name 
is  written  in  the  black  book  of  death. 

I  had  a  nephew— Ned.  I  say  "  I  had,"  because  last 
Christmas  Eve  I  killed  and  buried  him.  In  the  prim 
prison  cemetery  outside  this  cell,  I  hear  my  burial  pre- 
paring. Ned  never  heard  my  preparation  of  his  place  of 
sepulture.  To-morrow  as  I  travel  to  the  scaffold  through 
the  cemetery  I  shall  see  my  open  grave.  To  think  how 
often  Ned  and  I  have  gone  together  through  that  other 
churchyard  and  passed  his  burying  place  ;  two  fellow- 
travellers  I  on  the  road  of  death !     To  think  how  many 

1  Two  Fellow  Travellers.  The  phrase  "  a  fellow-traveller,"  em- 
ployed by  Jasper,  in  the  opium  den,  of  Edwin,  has  evoked  discussion. 
Some  read  it  literally,  others  in  a  sense  merely  metaphorical.  Jasper 
and  Edwin  had  travelled  together  literally  and  often  past  the  latter's 
destined  grave  unknown  to  Edwin.  Metaphorically,  too,  the  pair 
were  feUow-travellers  on  the  road  of  death  and  neither  knew  it.  The 
ambiguity   is   probably   intentional. 


4  :<  ;     ]  THE    MURDER    OF 

times  he  went  the  journey  and  never  saw  the  road  ! 
Ned  never  knew  his  death  was  near.  He  died  without 
a  struggle. 

Perhaps  I  hide  the  truth  from  myself,  but  I  do  not 
think  that  when  this  began  I  meditated  to  do  him  any 
wrong.  I  may  have  thought  how  serviceable  his  in- 
heritance would  be  to  me,  and  may  have  \\dshed  him 
dead  ;  but  I  believe  I  had  no  thought  of  compassing  his 
death.  Neither  did  the  idea  come  upon  me  at  once, 
but  by  very  slow  degrees,  presenting  itself  at  first  in 
very  dim  shapes  at  a  very  great  distance,  as  men  may 
think  of  an  earthquake  or  the  last  daj^ ;  then  drawing 
nearer  and  nearer,  and  losing  something  of  its  horror 
and  improbabihty  ;  then  coming  to  be  part  and  parcel 
— nay  nearly  the  whole  sum  and  substance — of  m}^  daily 
thoughts,  and  resolving  itself  into  a  question  of  means 
and  safety  ;  not  of  doing  or  abstaining  from  the  deed. 
While  this  was  going  on  within  me  I  never  could  bear 
that  Ned  should  call  me  Uncle  ;  nor  have  him  note  the 
intentness  of  my  look — that  look  of  hungry,  exacting, 
watchful  and  yet  (as  he  supposed)  devoted  affection 
which  I  knew  to  be  always  on  my  face  when  addressed 
in  his  direction.  And  yet  I  was  under  a  fascination 
which  made  it  a  kind  of  business  with  me  to  contemplate 
his  slight  and  fragile  figure  and  think  how  easil}^  it 
might  be  done.  Sometimes  I  would  steal  upstairs  and 
watch  him  as  he  slept. ^  How  easy  it  would  be  to  smother 
him ! 


2  As  he  slept.  "  His  nephew  lies  asleep,  calm  and  untroubled. 
John  Jasper  stands  looking  down  upon  him,  his  unlighted  pipe  in  his 
hand,  for  a  long  time  with  a  fixed  attention." 


EDWIN    DROOD 


"  Inhuman  callous  brute,"  I  hear  you  call  me, 
"  cold-bloodedly  to  set  down  thus  the  morbid  details 
of  his  murderous  thoughts  and  actions." 

No  longer,  therefore,  will  I  tell  my  tale  myself ; 
but  will  set  forth  instead  the  story  of  another  murderer. 


EPISODE   I. 
DEAD    AND    BURIED. 


JOHN    JASPER'S   GATEWAY. 


EPISODE    I. 
DEAD   AND   BURIED. 

ON  the  Eve  of  Christmas,  1842,  at  midnight 
precisely,  and  at  the  very  cHmax  of  the  great 
storm  which  went  thundering  along  the  empty 
streets  rattUng  at  all  the  latches  and  tearing  at  all  the 
shutters  as  if  warning  the  people  to  get  up  and  fly  with 
it,  John  Jasper  murdered  Edwin  Drood. 

Jealousy  was  the  motive  of  the  murder  and  a  large 
black  scarf  of  strong  close-woven  silk  the  instrument. 
The  death  was  instantaneous  1 ;  the  body  hidden 
immediately.^ 

Staged  at  Cloisterham,  the  tragedy  took  place 
within  the  sombre  precincts  of  the  old  Cathedral.  Among 
these  secluded  nooks  there  is  very  little  stir  or  movement 
after  dark.  There  is  Httle  enough  in  the  high  tide  of 
the  day,  but  there  is  next  to  none  at  night.  Besides 
that  the  cheerfully  frequented  High  Street  is  the  natural 
channel  in  which  the  Cloisterham  traffic  flows,  a  certain 
awful  hush  pervades  the  ancient  pile,  the  cloisters  and 
the  churchyard  after  dark  which  not  many  people  care 

1  The  Death  was  Instantaneous.  Jasper  tells  the  Opium  Woman 
as  much.  "  Time  and  place  are  both  at  hand.  .  .  Hush  !  The 
journey's  made.  Its  over."  "  So  soon  ?  "  "  That's  what  I  said  to 
you.     So  soon." 

2  The  Body  Hidden  Immediately.  The  site  of  the  murder  and  of 
the  burial  must  have  been  close  together.  Common  sense  requires  it. 
Also  Forster  says  so.  "  By  means  of  a  gold  ring  which  had  resisted 
the  corrosive  effects  of  the  lime  into  which  he  had  thrown  the  body, 
not  only  the  person  murdered  was  to  have  been  identified,  but  the 
locality  of  the  crime." 


10  THE    MURDER    OF 

to  encounter.  One  might  fancy  that  the  tide  of  hfe 
was  stemmed  by  Mr.  Jasper's  own  Gatehouse.  The 
murmur  of  the  tide  is  heard  beyond.  But  no  wave 
passes  the  archway  over  which  his  lamp  burns  red 
behind  his  curtain  as  if  the  building  were  a  lighthouse. 

On  this  Christmas  Eve,  three  are  to  dine  together 
in  the  house  of  Jasper  on  the  margin  of  the  tide  of  life. 
The  host  is  to  be  peacemaker  between  his  nephew  and 
the  shy  fierce  stranger  Neville  Landless,  with  whom 
Edwin  has  quarrelled  bitterly.  A  social  dinner  and  the 
season  of  good-will  provide  the  occasion.  Neville  is 
the  first  to  arrive  at  the  postern  stair  beneath  the  gate- 
way. Twice  he  passes  it  by,  reluctant  it  seems  to  enter, 
"  I  wish  I  were  not  going  to  this  dinner;  Helena,"  he 
has  told  his  sister.  But  at  last  with  a  rapid  turn,  he 
passes  in. 

Edwin  Drood  comes  next.  He  has  spent  a  solitary 
day,  and  as  he  strolls  about  and  about  to  pass  the  time 
until  the  dinner  hour,  his  wonted  carelessness  has  been 
replaced  by  a  wistful  looking  at  and  dwelling  upon  all 
the  familiar  landmarks  of  Cloisterham.  He  will  soon 
be  far  away  and  may  never  see  them  again,  he  thinks. 
Ah,  he  little  knows  ^  how  near  a  case  he  has  for  thinking 
so.  Poor  youth,  poor  youth  !  The  Cathedral  chime 
strikes  a  sudden  surprise  to  his  heart  as  he  turns  in  under 
the  archway  of  the  Gatehouse.  And  so  he  goes  up  the 
postern  stair. 

John  Jasper  passes  a  more  agreeable  and  cheerful 

^He  Utile  knows.  This  passage  is  here  pubhshed  for  the  first  time 
from  Dickens'  manuscript  (see  Author's  Introduction).  "  Poor 
youth,  poor  youth  !  "  was  substituted  in  the  printed  book. 


EDWIN    DROOD  ii 

day  than  either  of  his  guests.  He  is  in  beautiful  voice 
this  day.  In  the  pathetic  supphcation  to  have  his 
heart  inchned  to  keep  this  law  he  quite  astonishes  his 
fellows  by  his  melodious  power.  His  nervous  temp- 
perament  is  occasionally  prone  to  take  difficult  music  a 
little  too  quickly.  To-day  his  time  is  perfect.  These 
results  are  probably  attained  by  a  grand  composure  of 
the  spirits.  The  mere  mechanism  of  his  throat  is  a 
little  tender  for  he  wears  a  large  black  scarf  of  strong 
close-woven  silk  slung  loosely  round  his  neck.  After 
service  he  accompanies  Mr.  Crisparkle  to  Minor  Canon 
Corner  to  call  for  Neville.  Finding  that  his  guest  has 
already  left  for  the  Gatehouse,  he  bids  good-night  to 
the  Minor  Canon  on  the  latter's  doorstep,  retraces  his 
steps  to  the  Cathedral  door,  and  turns  down  past  it 
towards  his  home.  He  sings  in  a  low  voice  and  with 
dehcate  expression  as  he  walks  along.  It  still  seems 
as  if  a  false  note  were  not  in  his  power  to-night,  and 
as  if  nothing  could  hurry  or  retard  him.  Arriving  thus 
under  the  arched  entrance  of  his  dweUing,  he  pauses 
for  an  instant  in  the  shelter  to  pull  off  that  great  black 
scarf,  and  hang  it  in  a  loop  upon  his  arm.  For  that 
brief  time  his  face  is  knitted  and  stern.  But  it  im- 
mediately clears,  as  he  resumes  his  singing  and  his  way. 
And  so  he  goes  up  the  postern  stair. 

"  Three   are   to   meet   at   the   Gatehouse   to-night." 
They  meet  and  dine  and  the  dinner  is  dull  but  decorous. 
The  quarrel  is  healed  and  some  half-hour  before  mid- 
night the  dinner  party  breaks  up. 

At  Jasper's  suggestion  Neville  and  Edwin  go  down  to 
the  river  to  see  the  action  of  the  wind  there.     Jasper 


BASED  UPON  THE  ORDNANCE  SURVEY  MAP  WITH  THE  SANCTION 
OF    THE    CONTROLLER    OF    H.M.    STATIONERY    OFFICE. 


EDWIN    DROOD  13 

excuses  himself  on  the  score  of  his  throat  and  bids  them 
good-night  at  the  foot  of  the  postern  stair. 

"  When  shall  these  three  meet  again  ? 
In  thunder,  lightning  or  in  rain  ?  " 
No  sooner  have  the  pair  turned  down  the  High 
Street  towards  the  river  than  Jasper  regains  his  room, 
changes  his  coat  for  a  pea-jacket,  puts  on  his  low-crowned 
flap-brimmed  hat,  loops  once  more  upon  his  arm  the 
black  silk  scarf,  and  treading  softly  down  the  postern 
stair,  issues  forth  carrying  keys  and  an  unlit  lantern. 
He  turns  right-handed  *  towards  the  churchyard  and 
cathedral,  and  leaves  the  High  Street  and  his  guests 
behind  him.  On  reaching  the  railed-in  graveyard  on  his 
left  he  unlocks  the  gate  and  steps  inside.  Then  selecting 
a  vault  and  entering  it,  he  comes  out  again  almost  at 
once,  leaving  his  unlit  lamp  within.  He  then  pursues 
the  path  past  the  west  door  of  the  cathedral.  This 
brings  him  to  Minor  Canon  Row,  at  the  end  of  which  far- 
thest from  Neville's  temporary  home  there  is  a  piece  of  old 
dwarf  wall,  breast  high,  the  only  remaining  boundary 
of  what  was  once  a  garden,  but  is  now  the  thoroughfare. 

*  He  turns  Right-handed.  The  reader  is  invited  to  consult  the  plan 
and  the  air  photographs  from  time  to  time  for  explanation  and  con- 
firmation of  the  story.  Turning  sharp  to  the  left  on  coming  out  of 
the  west  door  of  the  Cathedral,  the  only  path  leads  straight  to  Minor 
Canon  Corner,  which  is  at  the  west  end  of  an  obvious  row  of  houses. 
This  path  continued  leads  to  "  the  Vines  "  (not  in  the  picture).  Re- 
turning past  the  West  Door,  the  path  bisects  the  cemetery.  The 
Drood  sarcophagus  and  Sapsea  tomb  are  in  the  right-hand,  darkly 
shadowed  portion  of  the  graveyard.  In  the  nearer  photographic 
view  the  gate  posts  of  the  entrance  to  this  part  can  just  be  seen. 
Next  comes  a  church,  and  after  that  the  Gatehouse  spanning  the  foot- 
way "  on  the  margin  of  the  tide  of  life,"  with  the  High  Street  visible 
beyond  it. 


14  •*  THE    MURDER    OF 

Behind  this  old  dwarf  wall  Jasper  stops  and  takes  his 
station.  Folding  his  arms  upon  the  top  of  the  wall 
he  rests  his  chin  on  them  and  waits  and  watches. 

Meanwhile  the  storm  blows  and  abates  not.  No 
such  power  of  wind  has  blown  for  many  a  winter  night. 
Chimneys  topple  in  the  streets  and  Neville  and  Edwin 
hold  to  posts  and  corners  and  to  one  another  to  keep 
themselves  upon  their  feet.  At  last  they  reach  the 
Comer,  and  take  sUght  shelter  from  the  storm  beneath 
the  porch  above  the  Minor  Canon's  doorstep.^  As 
they  part  amicably,  standing  in  the  shaft  of  light  cast 
through  the  open  door  from  within  the  house,  Jasper  sees 
and  watches  them.  This  is  the  final  meeting,  and  two 
of  the  three  part  there  for  ever.  The  door  closes  on  Neville. 
Edwin  retraces  his  steps  towards  the  Gatehouse  and  so 
to  bed.  Cat-like,  Jasper  follows  him.  They  pass  the 
great  West  door  of  the  Cathedral  in  close  succession 
following  the  path  across  the  pitch  dark  precincts. 
As  the  Cathedral  tower  tolls  midnight  they  approach 
the  steps  which  lead  through  the  unlocked  gate  in  the 
railings  into  the  burial  ground.  Unheard  in  the  echoing 
sounds  Jasper  closes  in  with  sudden  move  upon  his 
devoted  victim  and  in  an  instant  the  great  black  scarf 
is  tight  round  Edwin's  windpipe.  Without  a  struggle, 
an  entreaty,  without  any  consciousness  of  peril,  Edmn  is 
dead. 

"  Time  and  Place  are  both  at  hand."     Time — mid- 
night, Christmas  Eve  at  the  height  of  the  great  storm. 

5  The  Porch  above  the  Minor  Canon's  Doorstep.  All  the  houses 
in  the  Row  have  porches.  "  They  had  odd  little  porches  over  the  doors 
like  sounding-boards  over  old  pulpits." 


[To  face  page  15. 


EDWIN    DROOD  15 

Place — the  dark  Cathedral  Precincts.  "  Time,  Place 
and  Fellow  Traveller."  At  midnight,  on  the  eve  of 
Christmas,  at  the  point  of  greatest  fury  of  the  storm, 
crossing  the  deserted  graveyard  homeward  bound  goes 
Edwin  Drood.  "  Hush,"  softly  behind  him  Jasper 
approaches.  "  The  journey's  made,  it's  over."  Ned 
is  dead.  "  Wait  a  little.  This  is  a  vision.  I  shall 
sleep  it  off.  It  has  been  too  short  and  easy.  I  must 
have  a  better  vision  than  this ;  this  is  the  poorest  of 
all.  No  struggle,  no  consciousness  of  peril,  no  en- 
treaty." Jasper  in  a  sort  of  daze,  between  sleeping 
and  waking  stands  over  his  victim  half  believing  that  he 
dreams  it  all. 

"  And  yet  I  never  saw  that  before !  "  Jasper  is 
startled  out  of  this  reverie  by  his  glance  having  fallen 
upon  the  corpse  still  lying  at  his  feet.  "  Look  at  it ! 
Look  what  a  poor  mean  miserable  thing  it  is  !  ^  That 
must  be  real.  It's  over."  He  knows  his  dream  for 
reality  at  last.  For  the  first  time,  too,  he  discovers  the 
insignificance  and  weakness  of  that  formidable  and 
dangerous  obstacle  (as  up  to  now  he  has  pictured  his 
rival  to  himself)  the  removal  of  which  from  his  path  he 
has  made  the  one  object  of  his  life. 

With  the  reahzation  there  comes  with  a  rush  the 
need  for  instant  action  to  conceal  his  crime.  It  is  the 
work  of  less  than  a  minute  for  Jasper  to  hft  the  body 

6  Look  what  a  poor  mean  miserable  thing  it  is  !     Compare  with  this 
passage  The  Dream  of  Eugene  Aram. 

"  Two  sudden  blows  with  a  ragged  stick  and  one  with  a  heavy  stone. 
One  hurried  gash  with  a  hasty  knife — and  then  the  deed  was  done  ! 
There  was  nothing  lying  at  my  feet  but  lifeless  flesh  and  bone. 
Nothing  but  Hfeless  flesh  and  bone  that  could  not  do  me  ill." 


i6  THE    MURDER    OF 

in  his  arms,  carry  it  up  the  two  steps  into  the  burial 
ground  and  lay  it  on  the  grass  for  one  moment  outside 
the  sarcophagus  within  which  hes  the  poor  lad's  final 
destination.^  A  few  moments  more  are  occupied  in 
opening  the  door  of  the  tomb,  closing  it  again  behind 
them,  and  lighting  the  lantern  within.  Its  dim  hght 
discloses  a  spade,  a  small  heap  of  lime  and  a  cavity  laid 
bare  by  the  removal  of  a  few  bricks  from  the  wall. 
What  are  these  things  doing  here  ?  Jasper  has  a  last 
precaution  to  be  taken  before  that  appears.  Kneeling 
by  the  body  he  takes  from  its  clothing  all  articles  of 
jewellery  8  which  he  knows  to  be  there.  They  are  a  watch 
and  chain  and  shirt  pin.  This  done  he  hfts  the  body 
into  the  cavity,  then  covers  it  completely  with  quick- 
hme  and  walls  it  up  with  bricks  and  mortar.  Ned  is 
hidden  as  safely  as  though  buried  in  the  Pyramids  he 
tells  himself !  Nothing  now  remains  but  to  dust  from 
his  clothing  all  specks  of  lime,  extinguish  the  lantern, 
open  the  door  of  the  sarcophagus,  close  it  and  lock  it 

7  The  Sarcophagus.  .  .  ihe  Final  Destination.  During  a  lover's 
quarrel  Edwin  refers  to  "my  destination"  whereupon  Rosa  takes 
him  up  "  you  are  not  going  to  be  buried  in  the  Pyramids  I  hope  ?  " 
Previous  investigators  have  generally  assumed  that  if  Edwin's  des- 
tination was  a  tomb,  that  tomb  was  Mrs.  Sapsea's.  The  present  author 
prefers  to  place  him  in  the  Drood  sarcophagus.  The  Drood  family 
tomb,  which  lay  close  to  Mrs.  Sapsea's,  seems  somehow  more  appro- 
priate than  her's — an  utter  stranger.  Jasper,  as  the  elder  Drood's 
executor,  no  doubt  would  be  the  person  to  have  the  key  of  his  sarco- 
phagus. There  is,  however,  no  evidence  that  the  cavity  was  in  this 
particular  tomb — it  was  not  in  Mrs.  Sapsea's. 

8  Edwin's  Jewellery.  "  He  (Jasper)  said  with  a  smile  that  he  had 
an  inventory  in  his  mind  of  all  the  jewellery  his  gentleman  relative  ever 
wore  ;  namely  his  watch  and  chain  and  his  shirt  pin."  The  original 
of  the  watchmaker  to  whom  Jasper  made  this  remark  seems  to  have 
been  D'Oiley  the  watchmaker  in  "The  Disappearance  of  John 
Acland." 


EDWIN    DROOD  17 

behind  him,   and  return,   noiseless  and  alone,   to  the 
lonely  Gatehouse  where  the  steady  light  is  burning. 
That  was  Ned's  last  Christmas  Eve. 


EPISODE  II. 
A   KEY  AND  ITS  KEEPER. 


20  THE    MURDER    OF 


EPISODE    11. 
A   KEY  AND   ITS   KEEPER. 

MR.  Thomas  Sapsea,  auctioneer,  having  invited  Mr. 
John  Jasper,  Lay  Precentor  and  Choir  Master 
of  Rochester  Cathedral  to  supper  at  Mr,  Sap- 
sea's  house  in  the  High  Street  on  a  day  in  the  late 
Autumn  before  November  gth,^  receives  him.  there 
in  his  ground  floor  sitting-room  characteristically 
attended  by  his  portrait,  his  eight-day  clock  and  his 
weather-glass.  Durdles,  stonemason,  also  looks  in  by 
invitation  to  take  a  glass  of  port  with  them  and  to  receive 
instructions  from  Mr.  Sapsea  anent  an  inscription  to  be 
placed  upon  the  late  Mrs.  Sapsea's  funeral  monument. 
Mrs.  Sapsea's  key  is  about  to  go  into  an  inner 
breast  pocket  of  Durdle's  flannel  coat  when  Jasper 
interrupts  with  a  remark  which  leads  to  this  key,  and 
two  others,  being  handed  to  him  to  feel  their  weight. 
Improvising  conversation  with  Durdles  the  while, 
Jasper  not  only  feels  the  weight  of  the  keys  but  also 
studies  the  Sapsea  key  with  care,  mentally  noting  the 
feel  of  its  wards  and  the  tone  it  gives  out  when  struck. 
Then  with  ingenuous  and  friendly  face  he  hands  them 
back  to  Durdles  who  departs  leaving  Jasper  and  Sapsea 
to  a  hit  at  backgammon,  followed  by  a  supper  of  cold 

"^Before  November  gth.  At  this  meeting  with  Jasper,  Mr.  Sapsea 
is  not  yet  Mayor  of  Rochester.  His  importance  has  received  this 
enhancement  by  the  night  of  the  unaccountable  expedition.  Lord 
Mayor's  Day  (November  9th),  has  therefore  intervened. 


EDWIN    DROOD  21 

roast  beef  and  salad.  It  is  to  be  observed  that  the 
Sapsea  key  is  not  returned,  as  are  the  other  two,  into  an 
inner  pocket  but  is  tied  up  in  the  dinner  bundle,  without 
which  Durdles  never  appears  in  public. 

On  Monday,  November  I4th,2  Jasper  is  again 
present  at  a  little  party.  This  is  the  friendly  dinner  of 
eight  at  Minor  Canon  Corner,  planned  by  Mr.  Crisparkle, 
and  utterly  spoilt  by  Honeythunder,  the  ninth  and 
uninvited  guest.  Disasters  succeed  one  another  through- 
out the  evening  and  culminate  in  the  quarrel  at  the  Gate- 
house. Neville  goes  home  hatless  and,  Edwin  having  gone 
to  bed,  Jasper  follows  Neville,  with  his  hat,  for  the  double 
purpose  of  assuring  himself  that  the  boy  has  really  gone 
back  to  his  tutor's  and  has  not  drowned  himself,  or  done 
anything  equally  fatal  to  Jasper's  plans  and  of  blackening 
the  case  against  him  to  Mr.  Crisparkle  without  raising 
suspicion  as  to  his  own  motives.  These  benevolent 
aims  accomplished,  Jasper  returns  home  through  the 
Close,^  but  on  his  way  is  brought  to  a  standstill  by  the 
spectacle   of   Stony   Durdles,    dinner   bundle    and   all, 

2  Monday,  November  14th.  This  date  is  arbitrary  except  that 
it  was  a  Monday  "  so  many  weeks  "  before  Friday,  December  i6th, 
the  day  of  the  wonderful  closet. 

3  Returns  home  through  the  Close.  See  the  Note  The  Late  Commotion 
on  page  25. 

Professor  Jackson  gives  a  full  account  of  the  transposition  of 
chapter  V  in  "  About  Edwin  Drood,"  and  the  author  adopts  his  views 
verbatim.  In  addition  to  the  evidence  he  puts  forward  it  should  be  men- 
tioned (i)  That  the  way  from  Sapsea's  to  the  Gatehouse  is  not  "  through 
the  Close,"  (2)  That  the  manuscript  comment  on  the  Sapsea  monu- 
ment introduced  by  Durdles  is  "  with  inscription  finished."  This 
is  impossible  if  the  same  night  as  that  in  which  it  was  put  in  hand  is 
intended  and  (3)  That  the  manuscript  reference  to  "  glittering  frag- 
ments of  the  late  commotion "  is  meaningless  unless  the  night  of 
Neville's  quarrel  is  the  night  in  question. 


22  THE    MURDER    OF 

leaning  against  the  railing  of  the  burial  ground  while 
Deputy  flings  stones  at  him  in  the  moonlight. 

This  chance  meeting  with  Durdles,  in  this  state,  is 
most  opportune  for  Jasper's  plans.  Offering  to  accom- 
pany Durdles  to  his  home,  Jasper  first  ascertains  that 
the  all-important  key  still  lies  where  last  he  saw  it  put. 
.This  he  does  by  patting  the  dinner  bundle  and  hearing 
the  key  clink.  Next  he  tries  to  secure  possession  of 
the  bundle*  for  a  moment,  but  Durdles  will  not  part 
with  it,  but  starts,  instead,  to  introduce  to  Jasper, 
in  drunken  fashion,  the  gravestones  near-by  ^  beginning 
with  "  Your  own  brother-in-law,"  and  not  forgetting 
Mrs.  Sapsea,  that  devoted  wife  whose  tomb  now  dis- 
plays the  famous  inscription  finished.®  To  have  him  on 
his  own  ground,'  while  helping  him  along,  Jasper  asks 
Durdles  about  his  ramblings  in  the  Crypt  and  round 
about  the  Cathedral,  and  gets  Durdles  to  agree  to  let 
him  go  about  with  him  sometime  on  these  strange  ex- 
peditions of  his  among  the  tombs,  vaults,  towers  and 
ruins.  As  the  mental  state  of  Durdles^  and  of  all  his 
sodden  tribe  is  one  hardly  susceptible  of  astonishment 

^  Shall  I  carry  your  bundle  ?  Manuscript  adds  "  Jasper  pats  it 
and  it  clinks,"  also  "  '  Not  on  any  account,'  repeats  Durdles,  adjusting 
it." 

5  The  Gravestones  Near-by.  The  manuscript  has  "  Introducing  a 
distant  Sarchophagus,"  wTitten  and  then  deleted. 

6  With  Inscription  Finished,  manuscript.  "  Departed  Assessed 
Taxes "  was  "  Departed  King's  Taxes,"  and  the  gravestone  of  the 
much  respected  muf&n-maker  was  "  With  extinguished  torch." 

~  To  have  him  on  his  own  ground.  There  words  are  in  the  manu- 
script immediately  following  "  Is  there  anything  new  down  in  the 
Crypt,    Durdles  ?  "    asks  John   Jasper. 

8  The  Mental  State  of  Durdles.  The  whole  of  this  passage  is  from 
the  manuscript. 


EDWIN    DROOD  23 


in  itself  so  it  is  one  hardly  susceptible  of  any  reasonable 
interpretation  by  other  minds.  But  it  happens  to  fall 
out  to-night — just  as  it  might  have  happened  to  fall 
out  quite  the  other  way — that  Durdles  rather  likes  his 
position  in  the  dialogue  and  chuckles  over  it. 

When  Jasper,  pursuing  his  subject  of  romantic 
interest,  says  that  what  he  dwells  upon  most  is  the 
remarkable  accuracy  with  which  Durdles  would  seem  to 
find  out  where  people  are  buried,  Durdles  decides  to 
demonstrate  his  skill  and  looks  about  for  some  ledge 
or  corner  to  place  his  bundle  on.  Jasper  is  quick  to 
seize  his  chance  and  reheve  him  of  it.  Clink,  clink. 
And  his  hammer  is  handed  him.  The  Sapsea  key  is 
still  within  the  bundle.  How  does  Jasper  know  this  ? 
He  is  used  to  pitching  his  note  by  sounding  for  it.»  At 
Sapsea's  house  he  memorized  the  note  the  key  gives  out, 
and  now  "  clink,  chnk  "  he  has  heard  the  note  he  seeks. 
Clearly  the  key  has  its  regular  residence  tied  up  in  the 
bundle  where  Jasper  is  content  to  leave  it  until  he  needs  it. 

Deputy  is  now  given  warning  and  paid  his  wages 
and  the  longish  journey  is  resumed.  They  have  but  to 
cross  the  Vines  to  come  into  Crow  Lane  at  the  bottom 
of  which  stands  the  crazy  wooden  house,  the  Traveller's 
Twopenny.io  As  Jasper  and  Durdles  come  near  this 
place  a  woman  is  seen  11  crouching  and  smoking  in  the 
cold  night  air  on  a  seat  just  outside  the  door  which 

9  By  sounding  for  it.  Manuscript.  "  You  pitch  your  note  by 
sounding  for  it,  don't  you  Mr.  Jasper  ?  " 

10  The  Traveller's  Twopenny.  It  is  not  without  interest  that  this 
famous  spot  was  nearly  called  "  The  Traveller's  Threepenny  Lodgings." 
The  manuscript  has  it  so  with  Threepenny  deleted. 

^^  See  next  page. 


24  THE    MURDER    OF 

stands  ajar.  Of  a  sudden  Jasper  stops  and  looks  at  this 
woman — the  Hghter  coloured  figure  of  Durdles  being 
between  himself  and  her — very  keenly.  "  Is  that 
Deputy  "  ?  she  croaks  out  in  a  whimpering  and  feeble 
way ;  "  where  have  you  been  you  young  good-for- 
nothing  wretch  ?  "  "  Out  for  my  'elth  "  returns  the 
hideous  sprite.  "  I'll  claw  you,"  retorts  the  woman, 
"  when  I  can  lay  my  fingers  on  you.  I'll  be  bad  for  your 
'elth  (O  me,  O  me,  my  breath  is  so  short),  I  wanted  my 
pipe  and  my  little  spoon  and  ye'd  been  and  put  'em 
on  a  shelf  I  couldn't  find."  "  Wot  did  yer  go  to  bed  for 
then,"  retorts  Deputy  quite  unabashed.  "  Who'd 
ha'  thought  you  was  going  to  get  up  again  ?  "  "  You, 
you  might  ha'  known  I  was  like  to  do  it."  "  Yer  he," 
says  Deputy  in  his  only  form  of  contradiction. ^i  Further 
wrangling  between  the  two  is  stopped  by  some  half- 
dozen  other  hideous  small  boys  who  start  into  the  moon- 
Ught  like  vultures  attracted  by  some  carrion  scent  of 
Deputy  in  the  air,  and  instantly  fall  to  stoning  him  and 
one  another.  Durdles  remarks  of  the  young  savages 
with  some  point  that  "  They  haven't  got  an  object  " 
and  leads  the  way  down  the  lane.  At  the  junction  of 
Crow  Lane  with  the  High  Street,  they  turn  the  corner 
into  safety  ^^  and  Jasper  takes  Durdles  home — Durdles 
stumbhng  up  his  stony  yard^^  as  if  he  were  going  to 


11  A  Woman  is  seen.  .  .  His  only  form  of  contradiction.  The 
whole  of  this  passage  is  in  the  manuscript  verbatim.  Its  exclusion 
from  the  printed  book  is  explained  by  a  Note  in  the  manuscript  headed 
"  Plans." 

12  They  turn  the  corner  into  safety.  This  is  clearly  the  corner  formed 
by  the  junction  of  Crow  Lane  and  the  High  Street. 

1^  See  next  page. 


EDWIN    DROOD  25 

turn  headforemost  into  one  of  the  unfinished  tombs. 
John  Jasper  returns  to  his  Gatehouse  by  another  way  1* 
— the  High  Street — and  entering  softly  with  his  key, 
finds  his  fire  still  burning  and  on  the  hearth  some  gUttering 
fragments  of  the  late  commotion  i^  He  ascends  an  inner 
staircase  of  only  a  few  steps  leading  to  two  rooms. 
One  his  own  sleeping  chamber,  one  his  nephew's. i^ 
There  is  a  Ught  in  each.  His  nephew  lies  asleep,  calm 
and  untroubled.  Jasper  stands  looking  down  upon  him 
a  long  time  with  a  fixed  attention.  Then  he  passes  to 
his  own  room,  fights  his '  pipe  of  opium  and  dehvers 
himself  to  the  ghosts  and  phantoms  it  invokes  at  mid- 
night.    So  ends  this  long  eventful  Monday. 

13  Up  his  stony  yard.  "  Up  "  in  the  manuscript  becomes  "  among 
the  litter  of  "  in  the  printed  text.  The  ground  in  fact  runs  uphill  on 
that  side  of  the  High  Street. 

'^^  Another  way.  See  the  plan.  Observe  how  carefully  Dickens 
leads  the  reader  on  to  the  conclusion  that  Durdle's  house  is  far  away 
from  the  cemetery;  as  it  is  by  any  orthodox  approach.  Compare 
also  :  "  We  can't  help  going  round  by  the  Traveller's  Twopenny,  if 
we  go  the  short  way,  which  is  the  back  way."  The  manuscript  has 
'•  we  must  go  "and  "  the  right  way  "  both  deleted.     It  is  not  accidental. 

15  The  Late  Commotion.  This  is  from  the  manuscript.  It  proves 
to  the  hilt  Professor  Jackson's  theory  of  the  displacement  of  Chapter  V. 

16  One  his  Own.  .  .  One  his  Nephew's.  The  verbal  deviations 
from  the  printed  text  here  are  taken  from  the  manuscript.  ^ 


EPISODE   III. 
ACCOUNTS  FOR  THE   UNACCOUNTABLE. 


EPISODE    III. 
ACCOUNTS   FOR  THE  UNACCOUNTABLE.i 

MONDAY,  December  19th  2  the  third  day  after  Mr. 
Crisparkle's  mission  of  peace  to  Jasper,  brings 
a  letter  from  Edwin,^  proposing  (as  Jasper  had 
advised  him  to  propose)  a  friendly  dinner  with  Neville 
on  Xmas  Eve  "  the  better  the  day  the  better  the  deed, 
and  let  there  be  only  we  three,  and  let  us  shake  hands 
all  round  there  and  then,  and  say  no  more  about  it." 
The  date  fixed  for  the  dinner  is  less  than  a  week  ahead. 
So  Jasper  takes  the  letter  round  at  once  to  the  Minor 
Canon,  who,  quite  elated,  asks  "  You  expect  Mr.  Neville, 
then,"  to  which  Jasper's  reply  is  "  I  count  upon  his 
coming,"  On  the  evening  of  the  same  day  Mr.  Sapsea, 
now  Mayor  of  Rochester,  is  walking  slowly  with  his 

1  The  Unaccountable  Expedition.  This  chapter  according  to  the 
manuscript  "  Plans,"  was  to  "  lay  the  ground  for  the  manner  of  the 
murder  to  come  out  at  last."  Unless  the  murder  really  was  a  murder 
it  is  difficult  to  see  how  the  manner  of  it  could  come  out  at  last  ! 

2  Monday,  December  igth.  Mr.  Crisparlde  fixes  this  date  by  what 
he  says  to  Neville  {see  below).  The  group  which  met  in  view  of  the 
Gatehouse  on  this  Monday  evening  has  been  placed  by  Sir  L.  Fildes, 
in  his  striking  illustration,  on  the  exact  spot  chosen  by  Jasper  for  the 
murder  of  his  nephew.  It  was  not,  however,  where  Sapsea  stands 
at  the  entrance  to  the  left-hand  portion  of  the  graveyard  that  Jasper 
throttled  Edwin,  but  just  behind  the  cautioning  figure  of  Durdles 
whose  back  is  turned  on  his  own  yard.  Jasper,  who  is  looking  at 
Durdles,  can  see  beyond  him  a  corner  entrance  to  the  larger  piece 
of  burial  groimd  containing  the  Sapsea  tomb  and  Drood  sarcophagus. 
The  Dean's  field  of  vision  includes  another  pathway  along  which  at 
a  later  hour  to-night  Jasper  will  be  carrying  quick-lime  from  Durdles' 
yard  towards  Edwin's  burial  place  {see  the  plan). 

3  Edwin's  Letter.  Immediately  he  learnt  from  Neville  on  the 
previous  Friday  of  NeviUe's  infatuation  for  Rosa,  Mr.  Crisparkle  had 


30  THE    MURDER    OF 


hands  behind  him  near  the  Churchyard.  Turning  a 
corner  he  comes  at  once  into  the  goodly  presence  of  the 
Dean  conversing  with  the  Verger  and  Mr.  Jasper  about 
Jasper's  nocturnal  expedition  to  be  made  to-night  with 
Durdles.  Sapsea  appearing  thus  opportunely,  Jasper 
makes  prompt  use  of  the  pompous  ass  by  naming  him 

exacted  pledges  from  him  {a)  not  to  divulge  his  secret  to  Rosa,  and 
(6)  that  Drood  making  the  first  advance  the  quarrel  between  them 
should  be  ended  for  ever.  To  secure  that  Drood  shall  make  the  first 
advance,  Crisparkle  decides  to  seek  the  aid  of  Jasper,  to  whom  he 
says  "  I  want  to  establish  peace  between  these  two  young  fellows," 
Jasper  is  perplexed.  No  wonder.  The  quarrel  is  essential  to  his 
scheme,  and  yet  he  must  appear  to  wish  to  bring  about  a  reconcihation. 
"  How  ?  "  he  asked.  "  I  want  you  to  get  your  nephew  to  \\Tite  you 
a  short  note  in  his  Hvely  fashion  saying  that  he  is  willing  to  shake  hands." 
Jasper  turned  that  perplexed  face  towards  the  fire.  Mr.  Crisparkle 
found  it  even  more  perplexing  than  before,  inasmuch  as  it  seemed 
to  denote  (which  could  hardly  be)  some  close  internal  calculation." 
Jasper  was  calculating — was  there  time  ?  There  was  less  than 
a  week  to  Christmas.  Edwin  would  arrive  on  the  23rd  to  make  the 
final  preparation  for  the  marriage.  He  stiU  might  break  ofi  the  engage- 
ment and  five.  He  must  be  given  until  Christmas  Eve  at  least.  Yet 
a  reconcihation  with  Neville  could  not  be  long  postponed  if  once  they 
met  each  other,  as  they  were  bound  to  do  in  Cloisterham.  A  public 
notorious  reconciliation  would  be  fatal  to  Jasper's  plans.  Why  not 
a  private  one,  with  no  witnesses,  on  Christmas  Eve,  immediately  before 
the  time  fixed  by  Jasper  for  the  murder  ?  That  would  bring  the  two 
together  at  the  vital  moment  for  Jasper's  plans.  Rightly  regarded, 
in  fact,  this  suggestion  of  Mr.  Crisparkle's  will  smooth  the  way  for 
Jasper's  plan  (manuscript  "plans"  has  noted  against  the  title  of  the 
Chapter  "Smoothing  the  Way,"  that  is  for  Jasper's  plan  through  Mr. 
Crisparkle  who  takes  new  ground  on  Neville's  new  confidence.)  Yes, 
but  will  Neville  come  ?  Is  it  safe  to  rely  on  his  coming  ?  "  You  are 
always  responsible  and  trustworthy  ]Mr.  Crisparkle.  Do  you  really 
feel  sure  that  you  can  answer  for  NeviUe  so  confidently  ?  "  "I  do." 
The  perplexed  and  perplexing  look  vanished.  "  I  will  do  it."  As 
soon  as  Mr.  Crisparkle  had  left  him,  Jasper  sat  down  and  drafted 
and  sent  to  Edwin  the  letter  he  wished  to  receive  from  him.  Thus 
making  it  appear  as  if  his  own  suggested  time  table  originated  with 
Edwin.  On  the  third  day  after  this  (Sunday  intervening),  he  received 
from  Edwin  the  letter  for  which  he  had  asked  containing  nothing 
altered  or  added  except  expressions  of  afiection  and  a  postscript. 


EDWIN    DROOD  31 

as  the  real  originator  of  his  own  odd  archaeological 
whim  ;  Jasper  even  succeeds  in  causing  Sapsea  to  say- 
that  he  himself  recollects  having  made  the  suggestion  ! 
Durdles  then  comes  slouching  up  and  he  too  joins  the 
group  and  amuses  the  others  by  cautioning  Sapsea  against 
the  bad  habit  of  boasting  ;  after  which  caution  Sapsea 
stalks  off.  Durdles  then  going  home  to  clean  himself,  the 
group  breaks  up  ;  the  Dean  withdrawing  to  his  dinner. 
Tope  to  his  tea,  and  Jasper  to  his  piano  where  he  sits 
chanting  choir  music  in  a  low  voice  until  it  has  been 
for  some  time  dark  and  the  moon  is  about  to  rise.  Then 
he  closes  his  piano  softly,  softly  changes  his  coat  for  a 
pea  jacket,  with  a  goodly  wicker-cased  bottle  in  its 
largest  pocket  and  putting  on  a  low-crowned  flap- 
brimmed  hat  goes  softly  out. 

Why  does  he  move  so  softly  to-night  ?  No  out- 
ward reason  is  apparent  for  it.  Can  there  be  any 
sympathetic  reason  crouching  darkly  within  him  ? 

Jasper  next  repairs,  as  arranged,  to  Durdles'  home. 
Durdles  is  an  old  bachelor,  and  he  lives  in  a  little 
antiquated  hole  of  a  house  that  was  never  finished  ; 
supposed  to  be  built  so  far  of  stones  stolen  from  the 
City  wall.  It  overlooks  the  Churchyard.*  To  this 
abode  there  is  an  approach  ankle  deep  in  stone  chips. 

4  It  overlooks  the  Chtirchyard.  These  words  are  omitted  in  tiie 
printed  book.  In  the  manuscript  they  form  part  of  the  description 
of  Durdles'  home  given  in  Chapter  IV.  They  solve  a  problem  of  great 
importance.  They  explain  how  it  was  possible  for  Jasper  to  carry  the 
quick-lime  from  Durdles'  yard  to  the  Drood  sarcophagus  without 
attracting  observation.  {See  Appendix  IV).  The  exact  position  of 
Durdles'  yard  is  therefore  of  great  importance.  It  is  clearly  shewn 
upon  the  plan. 


32  THE    MURDER    OF 

Turning  in  here  from  the  High  Street,  Jasper  finds 
Durdles  ready  for  their  unaccountable  expedition. 
Durdles  takes  his  dinner  bundle,  a  lantern  and  some 
matches  and  they  start  out  together.  Jasper,  who  is 
ahead  at  the  yard  gate,  is  warned  by  Durdles  to  beware 
of  the  mound  of  lime  he  sees  there  "  quick  enough  to 
eat  your  boots.  With  a  little  handy  stirring  quick 
enough  to  eat  your  bones."  But  it  is  not  Jasper's  bones 
which  are  destined  to  that  fate  and  so  they  go  on  to- 
wards the  Cathedral  presently  passing  the  red  windows 
of  the  Traveller's  Twopenny  and  emerging  into  the  clear 
moonhght  of  the  Monk's  Vineyard.  This  crossed  they 
come  to  Minor  Canon  Row  of  which  the  greater  part 
lies  in  shadow  until  the  moon  ^  shall  rise  higher  in  the 
sky. 

The  sound  of  a  closing  house  door  strikes  their 
ears,  and  tw^o  men  come  out.  They  are  Mr.  Crisparkle 
and  Neville.  Jasper  with  a  strange  and  sudden  smile 
upon  his  face  lays  the  palm  of  his  hand  upon  the  breast 
of  Durdles  stopping  him  where  he  stands. 


5  The  Moon.  Careful  attention  is  devoted  by  Dickens  (and 
should  be  by  the  reader)  to  the  moonlight  shadows  throughout  the 
evening.  The  references  to  them  are  part  of  the  plot,  and  not  merely 
padding  or  picturesqueness.  By  a  happy  coincidence  the  shadows 
cast  by  the  sun  when  the  air  photograph  was  being  taken 
approximate  very  closely  indeed  to  those  cast  by  the  moon  on  the  night 
in  question. 

Jasper  sat  at  his  piano  with  no  light  but  that  of  the  fire  from  early 
dusk,  "  for  two  or  three  hours,  in  short,  until  it  has  been  for  some  time 
dark,  and  the  moon  is  about  to  rise."  The  sun  set  that  night  at  3-50, 
and  the  moon  rose  two  hours  and  five  minutes  later.  The  moon,  by 
the  way,  was  at  the  full  two  nights  before  this.  It  seems,  therefore, 
that  the  start  of  the  expedition  was  about  7  p.m.,  and  that  it  lasted 
some  six  hours  or  more. 


EDWIN    DROOD  33 

At  that  end  of  Minor  Canon  Row,  the  shadow  is 
profound  in  the  existing  state  of  the  hght ;  at  that 
end  too  there  is  a  piece  of  old  dwarf  wall  ^  breast  high, 
the  only  remaining  boundary  of  what  was  once  a  garden 
but  is  now  the  thoroughfare.  Jasper  and  Durdles 
would  have  turned  this  wall  in  another  instant,  but 
stopping  so,  short,  stand  behind  it. 

"  These  two  are  only  sauntering,"  Jasper  whispers, 
"  they  will  go  out  into  the  moonlight  soon.  Let  us 
keep  quiet  here  or  they  will  detain  us  or  want  to  join 
us,  or  what  not." 

Durdles  nods  assent  and  falls  to  munching  some 
fragments  from  his  bundle.  Jasper  folds  his  arms  upon 
the  top  of  the  wall  and  with  his  chin  resting  on  them, 
watches  Neville  as  though  his  eye  were  at  the  trigger  ^ 
of  a  loaded  rifle,  and  he  had  covered  him  and  were  going 
to  fire.  A  sense  of  destructive  power  is  so  expressed  in 
his  face  that  even  Durdles  pauses  in  his  munching  and 
looks  at  him  with  an  unmunched  something  in  his  cheek. 

Meanwhile  Mr.  Crisparkle  and  Neville  walk  to  and 
fro  quietly  talking  together.     What  they  say  ^  cannot 

6  A  piece  of  old  dwarf  wall.  Some  such  piece  of  wall  is  shewn  on 
a  large  scale  plan  by  Mr.  St.  John  Hope,  which  the  writer  has  seen  in 
the  British  Museum.  This  is  the  wall  from  behind  which  Jasper  watches 
the  final  parting  between  Neville  and  Edwin.  It  is  at  the  east  end  of 
Minor  Canon  Row  and  is  indicated  by  a  small  black  spot  upon  the  plan. 
{See  Episode  I). 

7  Eye  .  .  at  the  trigger.  We  small  fry  like  to  catch  the  giants 
tripping  !  Compare  with  this  Rosa's  "  dark  bright  pouting  eye  "  in 
Chapter  III. 

8  What  they  say.  Crisparkle  is  telling  Neville  about  his  interview 
with  Jasper  three  days  before  and  of  the  letter  from  Edwin  just  received, 
Neville  feels  himself  morally  bound  to  go  to  the  dinner,  bearing  in 
mind  his  pledge  and  Mr.  Crisparkle's  reminder  "  Remember  that  I 
said  I  answered  for  you  confidently."     He  agrees  to  go. 


34 


THE    MURDER    OF 


be  heard  consecutively,  but  Mr.  Jasper  has  aheady 
distinguished  his  own  name  more  than  once. 

"  This  is  the  first  day  of  the  week,"  Mr.  Crisparkle 
can  be  distinctly  heard  to  observe  as  they  turn  back 
"  and  the  last  day  of  the  v/eek  is  Christmas  Eve." 

"  You  may  be  certain  of  me,  Sir." 

The  echoes  were  favourable  at  those  points  and 
Jasper  knows  from  Neville's  own  lips  that  Neville  can 
be  counted  on ;  that,  however  unwiUingly,  he  will 
come  to  the  Gatehouse  dinner.  The  pair  slowly  disappear, 
passing  out  into  the  moonlight  at  the  other  end  of  Minor 
Canon  Row.^  It  is  not  until  they  are  gone  that  Mr. 
Jasper  moves,  but  then  he  turns  to  Durdles  and  bursts 
into  a  fit  of  laughter. 

Before  descending  into  the  crypt  by  the  small 
north  door  10  of  which  Durdles  has  the  key,  Jasper 
scrutinizes  the  whole  expanse  of  moonht  churchyard 
in  his  view,  and  finds  it  utterly  deserted.  One  might 
fancy  that  the  tide  of  hfe  was  stemmed  by  his  own 
Gatehouse.  The  murmur  of  the  tide  is  heard  beyond ;  but 
no  wave  passes  the  archway  over  which  his  lamp  burns 
red  11  behind  the  curtain,  as  if  the  building  were  a  Light- 
house.    Even  in  moonhght  the  churchyard  is  deserted. 

9  The  other  end  of  Minor  Canon  Row.  The  pair  must  have  gone 
through  the  Prior's  gate  else  they  would  meet  Durdles  and  Jasper 
later  on  their  journey.  The  site  of  the  Prior's  gate  is  shewn  upon  the 
plan  and  in  Kitton's  drawing  of  it  {see  the  frontispiece),  in  which  the 
chimneys  of  Mr.  Crisparkle's  house  are  seen  beyond. 

10  North  Door.  The  crypt  must  have  been  entered  from  the  North 
side  or  Jasper's  gatehouse  would  not  have  been  in  view.  The  point 
is  of  some  importance  since  Durdles'  yard  is  on  the  north. 

11  Lamp  Burns  Red.  Jasper  is  in  the  habit  of  leaving  his  lamp 
burning  although  he  is  out.  It  is  also  burning  at  midnight  on  Christmas 
Eve. 


EDWIN    DROOD 


35 


They  enter,  locking  themselves  in,  descend  the 
rugged  steps  and  are  down  in  the  Crypt.  The  taci- 
turnity of  Durdles  is  for  the  time  overcome  by  the 
contents  of  Jasper's  wicker  bottle  12  of  which  he  partakes 
freely  while  Jasper  only  rinses  his  mouth  once  and  casts 
forth  the  rinsing.  So  Durdles  talks  as  up  and  down  the 
lanes  of  light  they  walk  some  little  while.  They  are  to 
ascend  the  Great  Tower.  On  the  steps  by  which  they 
rise  to  the  Cathedral,  Durdles  pauses  and  seats  himself 
upon  a  step.  Mr.  Jasper  seats  himself  upon  another. 
The  odour  from  the  wicker  bottle  (which  has  somehow 
passed  into  Durdles  keeping)  soon  intimates  that  the 
cork  has  been  taken  out.  Durdles  drinks  and  drinks 
and  finds  it  good.  He  tells  his  story  of  his  last  Christmas 
Eve,  and  the  ghostly  cries  i3  he  heard  and  provokes  a 
fierce  retort  from  Jasper  who  adds  "  Come  we  shall 
freeze  here ;  lead  the  way.''  Durdles  complies  not 
over  steadily,  and  seems  unconscious  of  the  close  scrutiny 
of  Jasper  1^  while  fumbling  among  his  pockets  for  a  key 
confided  to  him  i^  that  will  open  an  iron  gate  and  so 
enable  them  to  pass  to  the  staircase  of  the  Great  Tower. 


12  Wicker  Bottle.  The  contents  were  "  bought  on  purpose  "  to 
make  Durdles  sleep,  whether  drugged  or  merely  extra  strong  who  can  say  ? 

13  Ghostly  Cries.  What  is  the  "  ghost  "  of  a  sound  ?  Can  it  be 
the  "  shadow "  cast  by  a  sound  not  yet  uttered  on  the  ghostly 
anniversary  before  its  utterance  ?  The  idea  recalls  the  words  that 
Thomas  Campbell  found  himself  repeating  as  he  awoke  out  of  sleep 
"  Coming  events  cast  their  shadows  before."  Anyhow  Jasper  finds 
the  story  a  httle  "  creepy  "  in  the  chilling  crypt. 

14  The  close  scrutiny  of  Jasper.  Jasper  watches  the  influence 
of  the  drink  on  Durdles  minutely  in  order  so  to  time  their  travels  that 
Durdles  shall  be  overcome  when  they  reach  the  crypt  and  when  the 
moon  is  Vv^holly  off  the  churchyard. 

^^  See  next  page. 


36  THE    MURDER    OF 

"  That  and  the  bottle  are  enough  for  you  to  carr}^" 
says  Jasper,  giving  the  key  to  Durdles,  "  hand  your 
bundle  to  me."  Durdles  hesitates  for  a  moment  be- 
ween  bundle  and  bottle  ;  but  gives  the  preference  to 
the  bottle,  and  by  this  simple  stratagem,  Jasper  secures 
the  bundle  and  the  key  tied  up  in  it. 

Then  they  go  up  the  winding  staircase  of  the  great 
tower,  and  at  last  they  look  down  on  Rochester  fair 
to  see  in  the  moonlight  ;  its  ruined  habitations  and 
sanctuaries  of  the  dead  at  the  tower's  base.  Jasper 
(always  moving  softly  with  no  \isible  reason)  contemi- 
plates  especially  that  stillest  part  which  the  Cathedral 
overshadows. 16  But  he  contemplates  Durdles  quite 
as  curiously,  and  Durdles  is  by  times  conscious  of  his 
watchful  eyes.  Only  by  times  because  Durdles  is  getting 
drowsy.  On  his  way  down  he  charges  himself  with  more 
liquid  from  the  wdcker  bottle.  Durdles  who  is  as  seldom 
drunk  as  sober  is  drugged  with  drink  to-night,  and 
when  they  reach  the  crypt  he  half  drops,  half  throws 
himself  down  by  one  of  the  heavy  pillars  and  is  asleep 
at  once,   and  in  his  sleep  he  dreams  a  dream. i"     He 

15  Key  confided  to  him.  Perhaps  the  Dean's  permission  was 
necessary  for  Jasper  to  have  this  key  whence  sprang  the  earlier  con- 
versation with  that  functionary.  Durdles  must  have  been  very 
fuddled  not  to  notice  the  absurdity  of  being  handed  a  key  to  lighten 
his  load  !  It  is  not  that  key  that  Jasper  needs,  but  the  one  tied  up  in 
Durdles'  bundle  which  he  secures  by  this  very  simple  stratagem  without 
Dmrdles  being  aware  he  has  ever  parted  with  it. 

16  Which  the  Cathedral  overshadon's.  At  this  hour  this  will  be  the 
west  and  north-west — in  other  words  a  portion  of  the  churchyard. 
It  should  be  noted  that  the  Cathedral  is  not  correctly  orientated. 

17  He  dreams  a  dream.  The  dream  is  his  subconscious  realisa- 
tion of  what  is  actually  occurring,  not  a  dream  unrelated  to  immediate 
occurrences. 


[To  face  page  37. 


EDWIN    DROOD  37 

dreams  of  lying  there  asleep  and  yet  counting  his  com- 
panion's footsteps  as  he  walks  to  and  fro.  He  dreams 
that  the  footsteps  die  away  into  distance  of  time  and 
space.  Actually  what  takes  place  meanwhile  is  this  ; 
Jasper  at  first  walks  to  and  fro  with  heavy  tread.  Then 
hushing  his  footsteps,  softly  tip  toe,  Jasper  comes  close 
to  Durdles.  Durdles  dreams  that  something  touches 
him,  and  that  something  falls  from  his  hand.  Then 
something  clinks  and  gropes  about.  Actually  Jasper 
touches  him  and  the  Crypt  key  falls  from  his  hand,  and 
Jasper  gropes  about  and  picks  it  up.  He  dreams  that 
he  is  alone  for  so  long  a  time  that  the  lanes  of  light 
take  new  directions  as  the  moon  advances  in  her  course.^* 
Actually  he  is  alone  this  long  while.  Jasper  is  gone 
from  the  Crypt  taking  lantern  and  keys  and  letting  him- 
self out  by  the  same  North  door  by  which  they  entered. 
Emerging  into  the  Churchyard,  it  is  no  longer 
moonlit.  The  southing  of  the  moon  has  cast  the  heavy 
shadow  of  the  nave  over  the  whole  expanse  of  burial 
ground  and  churchyard.  All  is  dark  and  deserted. 
Still  moving  softly  but  quickly,  Jasper  visits  first  the 
Sapsea  tomb,  opens  it  with  Durdles'  key  and  leaves  the 
lantern  within.  Then  closes  but  does  not  lock  the  door. 
Next  he  hastens  with  noiseless  footsteps  along  the  path 
which  leads  from  the  graveyard  eastwards,  passing 
beneath  an  archway  and  keeping  within  the  shadows 
cast  by  the  Cathedral  until  he  reaches  an  angle  in  the 

18  The  moon  advances  in  her  course.  The  southing  of  the  moon 
took  place  that  night  a  httle  after  one  o'clock  (1-7  to  be  precise).  The 
lanes  of  Hght  would  be  changing  their  angle  all  the  time.  But  the 
most  noticeable  change  came  when  they  fell  through  the  south  windows 
of  the  crypt  in  place  of  through  the  north. 


38  THE    MURDER    OF 

wall  from  the  far  side  of  which  Durdles'  unfinished 
dwelling  overlooks  the  Churchyard  precincts.  The  wall 
is  low  and  not  difficult  to  pass.  Once  across  it  Jasper 
finds  a  spade  19  in  Durdles'  yard,  and  making  several 
journeys,  carries  sufficient  quick  lime  for  his  purpose 
and  heaps  it  in  the  churchyard — where  ?  In  Mrs. 
Sapsea's  tomb.20  When  Jasper  has  collected  sufficient 
lime  within  it,  and  is  satisfied  that  he  has  not  been 
observed,  he  unlocks  the  Drood  sarcophagus  with  a  key 
in  his  possession  and  transfers  the  hme  to  it.  Also 
the  lantern  which  (having  closed  the  door)  he  fights. 
By  its  aid  and  by  sounding  with  the  handle  of  the  spade 
he  finds  a  hollow  portion  of  the  wall,  and  by  removing 
a  few  bricks  soon  discloses  a  cavity  21  large  enough  to 
house  a  body.  Into  the  cavity  he  drops  some  quick- 
lime and  arranges  the  bricks  where  he  can  easily  get 
at  them  to  put  them  back.  The  lime  not  yet  required  is 
heaped  at  the  further  end  of  the  tomb  away  from  the 

19  A  spade.  On  the  cover  note  the  crossed  spade  and  key  above 
the  bundle. 

20  Mrs.  Sapsea's  tomb.  It  seems  incredible  to  the  writer  that  this 
tomb  had  no  important  part  to  play  after  the  trouble  Jasper  is  made 
to  take  to  secure  the  key  to  it.  At  the  same  time  one  recoils  trom  the 
idea  that  Edwin  is  buried  in  a  stranger's  monument.  Also  the  key 
was  returned  the  same  night  to  Durdles'  bundle,  and  there  is  no  hint 
given  that  an  impression  was  taken  of  it  or  that  it  was  borrowed  on 
Christmas  Eve.  We  are  led,  therefore,  to  the  conclusion  that  the  im- 
portant use  made  of  the  tomb  was  as  a  half-way-house  for  the  imple- 
ments required.  The  advantage  was  that  had  they  been  tound  there 
by  some  mischance  while  the  preparations  were  being  made,  there  was 
nothing  to  connect  them  with  Jasper.  In  Dro^d's  sarcophagus  this 
was  not  the  case. 

21  A  Cavity.  As  already  stated  this  cavity  is  somewhat  hypo- 
thetical {See  Note  in  Episode  I).  The  cavity  mentioned  by  Durdles 
was  not  in  Mrs.  Sapsea's  tomb.  "  Say  Mrs.  Sapsea.  Her  wall's 
thicker,  but  say  Mrs.  Sapsea." 


EDWIN    DROOD  39 

door.  The  spade  stands  in  the  corner.  All  is  now 
prepared.  Jasper  puts  out  the  hght  and  leaves  the 
place,  locking  the  door  behind  him.  The  Sapsea  outer 
door  he  had  already  locked  before  entering  the  Drood 
sarcophagus. 

Still  in  the  shadow,  he  takes  the  lantern  back  to 
the  Crypt,  lets  himself  in  by  the  same  door  that  let  him 
out,  finds  Durdles  still  asleep  and  puts  the  crypt  key 
by  his  hand,  ties  the  Sapsea  key  up  in  the  bundle  and 
wakens  Durdles  by  walking  up  and  down  noisily  beating 
his  hands  and  stamping  his  feet.  Durdles,  his  dream  now 
over,  awakes  to  a  perception  of  the  lanes  of  Ught  really 
changed  much  as  he  had  dreamed.  He  asks  the  time. 
"  Hark  !  the  bells  are  going  in  the  Tower." 
"  Two  !  "  cries  Durdles,  scrambhng  up.  "  Why 
did'nt  you  try  to  wake  me  Mr.  Jasper  ?  "  "I  did. 
I  might  as  well  have  tried  to  wake  the  dead."  "  Did 
you  touch  me  ?  "  "  Touch  you  !  Yes,  shook  you." 
As  Durdles  recalls  that  touching  something  in  his 
dream,  he  looks  down  on  the  pavement,  and  sees  the 
key  of  the  crypt  door  lying  close  to  where  he  himself  lay. 
"  I  dropped  you,  did  I  ?  he  says,  picking  it  up  and  re- 
caUing  that  part  of  his  dream.  He  is  again  conscious 
of  being  watched  by  his  companion.22  "  Well,"  says 
Jasper  smiling  "  are  you  quite  ready  ?  Pray  don't 
hurry."  "Let  me  get  my  bundle  right,  Mister  Jarsper, 
and  I'm  with  you." 

22  Watched  by  his  Companion.  It  is  no  longer  Durdles'  state  of 
intoxication  that  Jasper  watches,  but  his  state  of  comprehension. 
How  much  has  he  noticed  ?  Does  he  suspect  anything  ?  Durdles 
reverses  the  position  when  he  asks  of  what  Jasper  suspects  him  ? 


40  THE    MURDER    OF 

As  he  ties  it  afresh  he  is  once  more  conscious  that 
he  is  very  narrowly  observed.  "  What  do  you  suspect 
me  of  Mister  Jarsper,"  he  asks  ?  "  I've  no  suspicions 
of  you  my  good  Mr.  Durdles,  but  I  have  suspicions  that 
my  bottle  was  filled  with  something  stiffer  than  either 
of  us  supposed.  And  I  also  have  suspicions  that  its 
empty."  Durdles  condescends  to  laugh  at  this.  Con- 
tinuing to  chuckle  he  rolls  to  the  door  and  unlocks  it. 
They  both  pass  out  and  Durdles  relocks  it  and  pockets 
the  key.  "  A  thousand  thanks  for  a  curious  and  in- 
teresting night  "  says  Jasper,  "  you  can  make  your  own 
way  home  ?  "  Each  is  turning  his  own  way  when 
Deputy  appears. 

"  What, !  is  that  baby  devil  on  the  watch  ^3  there  !  " 
cries  Jasper  and  rushes  at  him,  collars  him  and  tries 
to  bring  him  across.  "  Don't  hurt  the  boy,  Mister 
Jarsper,"  urges  Durdles.  "  Recollect  yourself."  "  He 
followed  us  to-night  when  we  first  came  here."  "  Yer 
lie,  I  didn't,"  replies  Deputy,  in  his  only  form  of  polite 
contradiction.  "  He  has  been  prowHng  near  us  ever 
since  !  "  "  Yer  lie,  I  haven't  "  returns  Deputy.  "  I'd 
only  just  come  out  for  my  'elth  when  I  see  you  two  a 
coming  out  of  the  Kinfreederel."  "  Take  him  home, 
then  "  retorts  Jasper  ferociously,  though  with  a  strong 
check  upon  himself.  They  depart.  Deputy  stoning 
Durdles  home. 

23  On  the  Watch.  Jasper  in  his  fear  and  fury  lets  us  see  just  what 
he  dreads.  "  He  followed  us  when  we  first  came  here.  He  has  been 
prowling  near  us  ever  since.  He  has  seen  all  I  have  done  to-night." 
His  relief  at  Deputy's  lie  "  I'd  only  just  come  out,"  is  intense.  Deputy 
had  really  seen  something  but  not  much.  Probably  he  had  seen  Jasper 
enter  the  Crypt  alone  after  i  a.m.  The  manuscript  note  in  "  Plans," 
is  "  Keep  the  boy  suspended." 


EDWIN    DROOD  ^l 


Jasper  goes  to  his  Gatehouse  brooding.  And  thus 
the  unaccountable  expedition  comes  to  an  end  for  the 
time  being. 


EPISODE   IV. 
THE  ENGAGED  COUPLE. 


44  THE    MURDER    OF 


EPISODE    IV. 
THE    ENGAGED    COUPLE. 

ROSA  Bud,  at  the  opening  of  the  story,  was  a  young 
and  pretty  httle  creature  very  like  her  mother 
had  been.  She  was  an  orphan,  both  her  parents 
having  died  before  she  was  seven  years  old.  Her 
mother  was  drowned  at  a  party  of  pleasure  on  the  river 
and  her  father  died  of  grief  on  the  first  anniversary  of 
that  hard  day.  She  had  no  other  relative  that  she 
knew  of  in  the  world.  Rosa's  guardian,  Mr.  Grewgious, 
was  not  a  relative,  but  had  been  her  father's  friend  for 
many  years. 

Rosa  was  engaged  to  marry  Edwin  Drood  as  every- 
one in  chattering  Cloisterham  knew.  Their  two  fathers 
had  been  fast  friends  and  old  college  companions  and  the 
betrothal  of  Rosa  by  anticipation  to  Drood's  son  grew 
out  of  Drood's  soothing  of  Bud's  year  of  mental  distress. 

When  first  they  plighted  their  troth  to  one  another, 
Rosa's  father  had  given  her  mother  a  ring — a  rose  of 
diamonds  and  rubies  delicately  set  in  gold.  This  ring 
he  took  from  her  dead  finger  in  Grewgious'  presence  and 
when  his  own  death  drew  near  he  placed  it  in  Grewgious' 
hands  upon  this  trust — that  Edwin  and  Rosa  growing  to 
manhood  and  womanhood  and  being  betrothed  and  their 
betrothal  prospering  and  coming  to  maturity,  Grewgious 
should  give  the  ring  to  Edwin  to  place  upon  Rosa's 
finger  to  seal  their  compact. 


EDWIN    DROOD  45 

The  marriage  was  fixed  for  the  month  of  May  in 
1843,  when  Edwin  would  be  of  age.  His  father  (now 
buried  at  Rochester)  had  been  a  partner  in  a  firm  of 
Engineers  operating  in  Egypt,  and  on  coming  of  age 
Edwin  would  attain  an  interest  in  the  partnership. 
Until  then  he  was  a  charge  upon  the  firm,  and  his 
maternal  uncle  Jasper  was  his  guardian  and  trustee. 

This  betrothal  of  the  two  friends'  children  to  one 
another  by  their  fathers,  was  a  wish,  a  sentiment,  a 
friendly  project  tenderly  expressed  upon  both  sides. 
It  was  nothing  more.  There  was  to  be  no  forfeiture  of 
property  on  either  side  if  it  did  not  lead  to  marriage. 
But  the  pair,  when  they  were  both  children  began  to 
be  accustomed  to  it,  and  grew  up  accustomed  to  it, 
and  so  had  come  to  be,  as  they  were  when  the  story 
opens,  an  engaged  couple. 

But  though  resigned  to  their  situation,  Rosa  and 
Edwin  were  not  happy  in  it,  each  felt  the  irksomeness 
of  not  being  free  to  choose  in  such  a  matter.  Rosa 
found  it  absurd  to  be  an  engaged  orphan  and  to  have  the 
girls  and  the  servants  scuttling  about  after  her  like 
mice  in  the  wainscot  when  her  affianced  husband  came 
to  call  on  her — for  even  the  young  ladies  at  the  Nun's 
house  had  it  pat  that  a  husband  had  been  chosen  for 
Rosa  by  will  and  bequest.  And  Edwin  found  it 
irritating  to  be  so  dictated  to  by  dead  and  gone  parents, 
and  to  have  everyone  in  chattering  old  Cloisterham 
referring  to  it.  "I  wonder  no  public  house  has  been  set 
up  with  my  portrait  for  the  sign  of  '  the  Betrothed's 
Head,'  or  '  Pussy's  Portrait.'  One  or  the  other,"  he 
says  in  pique. 


46  THE    MURDER    OF 

Yet  Edwin  would  have  drifted  into  their  wedding 
day  without  a  pause  for  real  thought  loosely  trusting  that 
all  would  go  well  left  alone — would  have  done  so  but  for 
Rosa  and  the  ring. 

The  ring  of  diamonds  and  rubies  held  on  trust  to 
be  the  engagement  ring  of  Edwin  and  Rosa  was  kept 
by  Mr.  Grewgious  locked  in  an  escritoire  in  his  chambers 
in  Staple  Inn.  His  intention  had  been  to  take  it  down 
to  Rochester  with  him  on  his  promised  visit  to  Rosa  at 
Christmas,  and  then  to  give  it  to  Edwin  to  place  upon  her 
finger.  But  Edwin  happened  to  \dsit  Grewgious  in  his 
chambers  before  journeying  down  to  Rochester  (where 
he  was  to  make  the  final  irrevocable  preparations  for 
his  marriage),  and  on  this  visit  to  Mr.  Grewgious  he 
shewed  such  coolness,  lassitude,  doubt,  indifference, 
disclosed  a  state  of  mind  half  smoke,  half  fire,  and  so 
unlike  that  Mr.  Grewgious  looked  for  in  a  true  lover, 
that  Grewgious  decided  to  fulfil  his  trust  by  handing  the 
ring  to  Edwin  then  and  there  in  the  presence  of  Bazzard, 
his  clerk,  as  witness,  and  to  make  the  solemnity  the 
occasion  of  this  appeal  to  Edwin  :  "  Your  placing  it  on 
her  finger,"  giving  him  the  ring,  "  will  be  the  solemn  seal 
upon  your  strict  fidelity  to  the  living  and  the  dead. 
If  anything  should  be  amiss,  if  anything  should  be  even 
slightly  wrong  between  you,  if  you  should  have  any  secret 
consciousness  that  you  are  committing  yourself  to  this 
step  for  no  higher  reason  than  because  you  have  long 
been  accustomed  to  look  forward  to  it  ;  then  I  charge 
you  once  more  by  the  living  and  the  dead  to  bring  that 
ring  back  to  me." 

That  serious  putting  him  on  his  trust  to  the  living 


EDWIN    DROOD  47 

and  the  dead,  brought  Edwin  to  a  check.  He  must 
either  give  the  ring  to  Rosa  or  he  must  take  it  back. 
"  I  will  be  guided  by  what  she  says  and  by  how  we  get 
on  "  was  his  decision. 

Rosa,  meanwhile,  on  her  side,  had  long  been  thinking 
about  abandoning  their  intended  relations  and  had  at 
last  summoned  up  the  courage  to  make  the  suggestion. 

"  Eddy,  let  us  be  courageous.  Let  us  change  to 
brother  and  sister  from  this  day  forth."  "  Never  be 
husband  and  wife  ?  "  "  Never !  you  are  not  truly 
happy  in  our  engagement.  I  am  not  truly  happy  in  it. 
If  we  knew  yesterday,  and  we  did  know  yesterday  and 
on  many,  many  yesterdays  that  we  were  far  from  right  to- 
gether in  these  relations  which  were  not  of  our  own  choos- 
ing, what  better  could  we  do  to-day  than  change  them  ?  " 

Her  full  heart  breaking  into  tears  he  puts  his  arm 
about  her  waist  and  they  walk  by  the  river  side  together. 
She  tells  of  Grewgious'  visit  to  her  and  he  of  his  to 
Grewgious.  The  ring !  His  right  hand  was  in  his 
breast  seeking  the  ring ;  but  he  checked  it  as  he  thought 
"  If  I  am  to  take  it  back,  why  should  I  tell  her  of  it  ? 
Let  them  be,  let  them  lie  unspoken  of  in  his  breast." 

Among  the  mighty  store  of  wonderful  chains  that 
are  for  ever  forging  day  and  night  in  the  vast  ironworks 
of  time  and  circumstance,  there  was  one  chain  forged 
in  the  moment  of  that  small  conclusion  ^  riveted  to  the 

1  The  Small  Conclusion.  "  All  discovery  of  the  murderer  was  to 
be  baffled  till  towards  the  close  when  by  means  of  a  gold  ring  which  had 
resisted  the  corrosive  effects  of  the  lime  into  which  he  had  thrown  the 
body,  not  only  the  person  murdered  was  to  be  identified,  but  the 
locality  of  the  crime,  and  the  man  who  committed  it."  Forster,  Life 
of  Charles  Dickens. 

E 


48  THE    MURDER    OF 

foundation  of  heaven  and  earth  and  gifted  with  in- 
vincible force  to  hold  and  drag.  They  kissed  each  other 
fervently. 

God  bless  you  dear,  goodbye  ! 

God  bless  you  dear,  goodbye  !  2 

2  Goodbye.  Though  they  thought  themselves  to  be  parting  as 
lovers  only,  this  was  really  a  final  goodbye.  Compare  with  it  the 
passage  in  which  Edwin  takes  leave  of  Rochester  and  the  following 
extract  from  Martin  Chuzzlewit.  "  It  may  be  that  the  evening 
whispered  to  his  conscience,  or  it  ma^^  be  (as  it  has  been)  that  a  shadowy 
veil  was  dropping  round  him  closing  out  all  thoughts  but  the  presenti- 
ment and  vague  foreknowledge  of  impending  doom.  If  there  be  fluids, 
as  we  know  there  are,  which  conscious  of  a  coming  wind  or  rain  or  frost, 
will  shrink  and  strive  to  hide  themselves  in  their  glass  arteries  ;  may 
not  that  subtle  liquor  of  the  blood  perceive  by  properties  within  itself 
that  hands  are  raised  to  waste  and  spill  it ;  and  in  the  veins  of  men 
run  cold  and  dull  as  his  did  in  that  hour  ?  " 


EDWIN    DROOD 


49 


EPISODE  V. 
THE   GREEN-EYED  MONSTER. 


50  THE    MURDER    OF 


EPISODE    V. 

THE   GREEN-EYED   MONSTER. 

(a)     Jasper  Warns  Edwin. 

TAKE  it  as  a  warning  then."  In  the  act  of  having 
his  hands  released  and  of  moving  a  step  back 
Edwin  pauses  for  an  instant  to  consider  the 
appUcation  of  these  last  words.  The  instant  over,  he 
says  "  The  disinterestedness  of  your  painfully  laying 
your  inner  self  bare  as  a  warning  to  me,"  Mr.  Jasper's 
steadiness  of  face  and  figure  becomes  so  marvellous  that 
his  breathing  seems  to  have  stopped,  "  I  really  was  not 
prepared  for,  as  I  may  say,  your  sacrificing  yourself 
to  me  in  that  way."  Mr.  Jasper  becomes  a  breathing 
man  again,  shrugs  his  shoulders,  laughs  "  you  won't 
be  warned  then  ?  "  "  No,  Jack."  "  You  can't  be 
warned  then  ?  "  "  No,  Jack."  Mr.  Jasper  dissolves 
his  attitude  and  they  both  go  out  together. 

What  is  it  all  about  ?  What  does  it  mean  ?  Jasper 
has  had  an  attack  after  his  opium  bout.  He  has  reposed 
in  Edwin  the  confidence  that  he  takes  opium  for  a  pain 
— an  agony  and  is  troubled  with  some  stray  sort  of 
ambition,  aspiration,  restlessness,  dissatisfaction. 

"No  wretched  monk  who  droned  his  life  away  in 
that  gloomy  place  before  me  can  have  been  more  tired 
of  it  than  I  am.  He  could  take  for  rehef  (and  did  take) 
to  carving  demons  out  of  the  stalls  and  seats  and  desks. 


EDWIN    DROOD  51 


What  shall  I  do  ?     Must  I  take  to  carving  them  out  of 
my  heart  ?  " 

Jasper  bids  Edwin  remember  his  state  of  mind  and 
heart,  and  take  it  as  a  warning.  In  the  act  of  moving  a 
step  back,  Edwin  pauses  for  an  instant  to  consider  the 
application  to  himself  of  these  last  words.  Jasper 
watches  him,  holding  his  breath  at  the  very  thought 
that  Edwin  is  beginning  to  reahse  how  he  is  threatened. 
The  instant  over  "  Your  sacrificing  yourself  to  me," 
says  Edwin,  and  Jasper  knows  he  has  failed  to  under- 
stand the  warning.  Instantly  Jasper  becomes  a  breath- 
ing man  again  and  shrugs  his  shoulders.  He  won't 
and  can't  be  warned  ! 

(b)    Rosa's  Confidence  to  Helena. 

"  Who  is  Mr.  Jasper  ?  You  do  not  love  him  ?  " 
"  Ugh."  "  You  knovv^  that  he  loves  you  ?  "  "  Don't 
tell  me  of  it.  He  terrifies  me,  he  haunts  my  thoughts 
Hke  a  dreadful  ghost.  I  feel  as  if  he  could  pass  in  through 
the  wall  vv^hen  he  is  spoken  of.  He  has  made  a  slave 
of  me  with  his  looks.  He  has  forced  me  to  understand 
him  v/ithout  his  saying  a  word  ;  and  he  has  forced  me 
to  keep  silence  without  his  uttering  a  threat.  When 
I  play  he  never  moves  his  eyes  from  my  hands.  When  I 
sing  he  never  moves  his  eyes  from  my  lips.  When  he 
plays  a  passage  he  himself  is  in  the  sounds  whispering 
that  he  pursues  me  as  a  lover  and  commanding  me  to 
keep  his  secret.  To-night  when  he  watched  my  hps  so 
closely  as  I  was  singing,  besides  feeling  terrified  I  felt 
ashamed  and  passionately  hurt.  It  was  as  if  he  kissed 
me  and  I  couldn't  bear  it,   but  cried  out.     You  must 


52 


THE    MURDER    OF 


never  breathe  this  to  anyone.  But  you  said  to-night 
that  you  would  not  be  afraid  of  him  under  any  circums- 
tances and  that  gives  me — who  am  so  much  afraid  of 
him — courage  to  tell  only  you.  Hold  me  !  Stay  with 
me  !     I  am  too  frightened  to  be  left  by  myself." 

(c)     Neville's  Outburst. 

"  I  have  never  yet  had  the  courage  to  say  to  you, 
Sir,  what  in  full  openness  I  ought  to  have  said  when 
you  first  talked  with  me  on  this  subject.  It  is  not  easy 
to  say,  and  I  have  been  withheld  by  a  fear  of  its  seeming 
ridiculous,  which  is  very  strong  upon  me  down  to  this 
last  moment,  and  might,  but  for  my  sister,  prevent  my 
being  quite  open  with  you  even  now — I  admire  Miss 
Bud,i  Sir,  so  very  much,  that  I  cannot  bear  her  being 
treated  with  conceit  or  indifference  ;  and  even  if  I  did 
not  feel  that  I  had  an  injury  against  young  Drood  on 
my  own  account,  I  should  feel  that  I  had  an  injury 
against  him  on  hers.  I  say  that  I  love  her  and  despise 
and  hate  him  !  " 

{d)    Jasper  Misled. 

Plunged  into  a  state  of  hopeless  angularity  by  the 
spectacle  of  Miss  Twinkleton's  curtsey, 2  suggestive  of 
marvels  happening  to  her  respected  legs,  Mr.  Grewgious 
got  out  of  the  presence  how  he  could.  As  he  held  it 
incumbent  upon  him  to  call  on  Mr.  Jasper  before  leaving 

1  /  Admire  Miss  Bud.     Manuscript  "  Plans  "  has  "  Neville  admires 
Rosa.     That  comes  out  from  himself." 

2  Miss  Twinkleton's  Curtsey.     This  passage  is  a  combination  ot  the 
text  and  manuscript. 


EDWIN    DROOD  53 

Rochester,  he  went  to  the  Gatehouse,  but  Mr.  Jasper's 
door  being  closed  and  presenting  on  a  sHp  of  paper  the 
word  "  Cathedral,"  Mr.  Grewgious  forthwith  repaired 
thither  to  find  the  choir  coming  out.  Among  the  dirty 
Hnen  ^  that  was  already  being  unbuttoned  behind  with 
all  the  expedition  compatible  with  a  feint  of  following 
the  mace  in  procession  round  the  corner  was  the  robe 
of  Mr.  Jasper.  He  threw  it  to  a  boy  who  sadly  wanted 
"  getting  up "  by  some  laundress,  and  he  and  Mr. 
Grewgious  walked  out  of  the  Cathedral  talking  as  they 
went.  "  Nothing  is  the  matter  ?  "  Mr.  Jasper  began 
rather  quickly.  "  You  have  not  been  sent  f or  ?  " 
"  Not  at  all,  not  at  all.  I  came  down  of  my  own  accord. 
I  have  had  it  in  my  mind  to  come  down  this  long  time. 
But  more  off  than  on,  I  am  ashamed  to  say."     "  Are 

you  going  to ?  "     "I  have  been  to  my  pretty 

ward's  and  am  now  homeward  bound  again.  I  merely 
came  to  tell  her  seriously  what  a  betrothal  by  deceased 
parents  is— that  it  could  not  be  considered  binding 
against  any  such  reason  for  its  dissolution  as  a  want  of 
affection  or  want  of  disposition  to  carry  it  into  effect." 
"  Had  you  any  special  reason  for  telling  her  that  ?  " 
Mr.  Grewgious  shrugged  his  shoulders  *  as  he  answered 
somewhat  sharply,  "  The  special  reason  of  resolving 
to  do  my  duty,  Sir.  Simply  that.  I  assure  you  that 
this  impHes  not  the  least  doubt  of  or  disrespect  to  your 


3  The  Dirty  Linen.  The  passages  "  among  the  dirty  linen  "  to 
"  talking  as  they  went,"  and  "  Have  had  it  in  my  mind  "  to  "  When 
are  you  going  to  !  "  and  several  minor  alterations  are  here  inserted 
from  the  manuscript. 

4  Shrugged  his  Shoulders.     Manuscript. 


54  THE    MURDER    OF 

nephew.  Duty  in  the  abstract  must  be  done,^  even  if 
it  did,  but  it  did  not  and  it  does  not.  I  like  your  nephew 
very  much.  I  hope  you  are  satisfied  ?  "  "  Can  I  be 
less  than  satisfied  ?  " 

"  I  will  wager,"  said  Jasper  smiling — his  lips  were 
still  so  white  that  he  was  conscious  of  it  and  bit  and 
moistened  them  while  speaking.  "  I  will  wager  that 
she  hinted  no  wish  to  be  released  from  Ned  }  "  "  And 
you  will  win  your  wager  if  you  do,  at  least  I  suppose  we 
should  ^  allow  some  margin  for  little  maidenly  delicacies. 
What  do  you  think  ?  "  "  There  can  be  no  doubt  of  it." 
"  I  am  glad  you  say  so  because  she  seems  to  have  some 
little  delicate  instinct  that  all  prehminary  arrangements 
had  best  be  made  between  Mr.  Edwin  Drood  and  herself, 
dan't  you  see  ?  She  don't  want  us,  don't  you  know  ?  " 
Jasper  touched  himself  on  the  breast  and  said  somewhat 
indistinctly  "  You  mean  me."  Mr.  Grewgious  touched 
himself  on  the  breast  and  said  "  I  mean  us."  "  There- 
fore," said  Mr.  Grewgious  in  a  cosily  arranging  manner,"^ 
*'  let  them  have  their  little  discussions  and  councils 
together  when  Mr.  Edwin  Drood  comes  here  at  Christmas, 
and  then  you  and  I  will  step  in  and  put  the  final  touches 
to  the  business."  "  So  you  settled  with  her  that  you 
would  come  back  at  that  time  "  observed  Jasper. 
"Eh?"  said  the  other  expressionlessly  innocent.     But 

5  Duty  .  .  .  must  be  done.  Manuscript.  Jasper  answers 
question  with  question  because  he  is  really  the  opposite  of  satisfied, 
but  does  not  intend  Mr.  Grewgious  to  know  it.  He  was  hoping  against 
hope  that  the  pair  would  break  off  their  engagement,  hence  his  white- 
lipped  anxiety.  Grewgious'  disclosure  was  a  dire  disappointment 
to  him. 

^  At  least  I  suppose  we  should.     Manuscript. 

"^  In  a  cosily  arranging  manner.     Manuscript. 


EDWIN    DROOD  55 

not  without  adding  internally  "  This  is  a  very  quick 
watch-dog  !  "  *'  So  you  settled  with  her  that  you  would 
come  back  at  Christmas "  repeated  Jasper.  "  At 
Christmas  ?  Certainly.  Oh  dear,  yes.  I  settled  with 
her  that  I  would  come  back  at  Christmas,"  replied  Mr. 
Grewgious  as  if  the  question  had  previously  lain  between 
Lady  Day,  Midsummer  Day,  and  Michaelmas.  By 
this  time,  sometimes  walking  very  slowly  and  sometimes 
standing  still  they  had  reached  the  Gatehouse.  "  Will 
you  not  walk  up,"  said  Jasper  "  and  refresh  ?  " 
"  Thank  you,  no.  I  have  a  horse  and  chaise  here  and 
have  not  too  much  time  to  get  across  and  catch  the  new 
railroad  over  yonder."  Jasper  pressed  his  hand  ®  and 
they  parted.  When  they  next  met,  on  the  evening  of 
Tuesday,  the  27th  December  ^  Edwin  was  dead. 

(e)     Jasper  Enlightened. 

Unkempt  and  disordered,  bedaubed  with  mud  that 
had  dried  upon  him,  and  with  much  of  his  clothing  torn 
to  rags  10  Jasper  had  but  just  dropped  into  his  easy  chair 
when  Mr.  Grewgious  stood  before  him.  "  This  is  strange 
news,"  said  Mr.  Grewgious,  "  strange  and  fearful  news." 

8  Eh  ?  .  .  Jasper  pressed  his  hand.  The  whole  of  this  passage 
is  from  the  manuscript.  "  The  new  railroad  over  yonder,"  is  the 
"  remote  fragment  of  main  line,"  which  passengers  from  Rochester 
joined  at  Maidstone  Road.  A  horse  and  chaise  to  Strood  or  Rochester 
stations  would  be  absurd  !     {See  Appendix  II). 

9  Tuesday,  27th  December.  On  Xmas  day  (Sunday)  Neville  was 
arrested.  With  the  earliest  light  of  the  next  morning  men  were  at 
work  upon  the  river  until  the  next  day  dawned.  All  that  day  again 
the  search  went  on,  setting  his  watches  for  that  night  again  Jasper 
went  home  exhausted. 

10  Clothing  torn  to  Rags.  Thus  effectually  hiding  any  traces  there 
might  have  been  of  the  murder  or  the  lime. 


56  THE    MURDER    OF 

"  I  have  a  communication  to  make  that  will  surprise 
you.  At  least  it  has  surprised  me."  Jasper  with  a 
groaning  sigh  turned  wearily  in  his  chair.  "  Shall  I 
put  it  off  till  to-morrow  ?  "  said  Mr.  Grewgious.  "  Mind 
I  warn  you  that  I  think  it  will  surprise  you  !  "  More 
attention  and  concentration  came  into  John  Jasper's 
eyes  as  they  caught  sight  of  Mr.  Grewgious  smoothing 
his  head  again  and  again  looking  at  the  fire,  but  now  with 
a  compressed  and  determined  mouth.  "  What  is  it  ?  " 
demanded  Jasper  becoming  upright  in  his  chair.  "  To 
be  sure,"  said  Mr.  Grewgious  provokingly  slowly  and 
internally  as  he  kept  his  eyes  on  the  fire.  "  I  might 
have  known  it  sooner ;  she  gave  me  the  opening. i^ 
but  I  am  such  an  exceedingly  angular  man,  that  it 
never  occurred  to  me ;  I  took  it  all  for  granted." 
"  What  is  it  ?  "  demanded  Jasper  once  more.  "  This 
young  couple,  the  lost  youth  and  Miss  Rosa,  my  ward, 
though  so  long  betrothed,  and  so  long  recognising  their 
betrothal,  and  so  near  being  married,"  Mr.  Grewgious 
saw  a  staring  white  face,  and  two  quivering  white  lips 
in  the  easy  chair,  and  saw  two  muddy  hands  gripping 
its  sides.  But  for  the  hands  he  might  have  thought 
he  had  never  seen  the  face.  "  This  young  couple  came 
gradually  to  the  discovery  (made  on  both  sides  pretty 
equally  I  think),  that  they  would  be  happier  and  better, 
both  in  their  present  and  their  future  lives,  as  affectionate 
friends,  or  say  rather  as  brother  and  sister,  than  as  hus- 
band and  wife."     Mr.   Grewgious  saw  a  lead-coloured 


11  She  gave  me  the  opening.     "  Rosa  shook  her  head  with  an  almost 
plaintive  air  of  hesitation  in  want  of  help,"  &c. 


EDWIN    DROOD  57 

face  in  the  easy  chair,  and  on  its  surface  dreadful  starting 
drops  or  bubbles  as  if  of  steel. 

"  This  young  couple  formed  at  length  the  healthy 
resolution  of  interchanging  their  discoveries,  openly, 
sensibly  and  tenderly.  They  met  for  that  purpose. 
They  agreed  to  dissolve  their  existing  and  their  intended 
relations  for  ever  and  ever."  Mr.  Grewgious  saw  a 
ghastly  figure  rise  open-mouthed  from  the  easy  chair 
and  Hft  its  outspread  hands  towards  its  head.  "  Your 
nephew,  however,  forbore  to  tell  you  the  secret  for  a  few 
days  and  left  it  to  be  discharged  by  me,  when  I  should 
come  down  to  speak  to  you,  and  he  would  be  gone.  I 
speak  to  you  and  he  is  gone."  Mr.  Grewgious  saw  the 
ghastly  figure  throw  back  its  head,  clutch  its  hair  with 
its  hands  and  turn  with  a  writhing  action  from  him. 
"  I  have  said  now  all  I  have  to  say,  except  that  this  young 
couple  parted  firmly,  though  not  without  tears  and 
sorrow  on  the  evening  when  you  last  saw  them  together.12 
Mr.  Grewgious  heard  a  terrible  shriek,  and  saw  no 
ghastly  figure  sitting  or  standing  ;  saw  nothing  but  a 
heap  of  torn  and  miry  clothes  upon  the  floor  i^. 
(/)    Crisparkle's  Confidence. 

When  John  Jasper  recovered  from  his  fit  or  swoon 
he  found  himself  being  tended  by  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Tope. 

12  When  you  last  saw  them  together.  "  He  saw  us  as  we  took  leave 
of  each  other  poor  fellow  !    he  little  thinks  we  have  parted." 

13  A  heap  of  torn  and  miry  clothes  upon  the  floor.  "  Mr.  Grewgious 
took  no  pains  to  conceal  his  implacable  disHke  of  Jasper,  yet  he  never 
referred  it  however  distantly  to  "  any  sort  of  suspicion  that  he  had 
murdered  Edwin.  "  But  he  was  a  reticent  as  well  as  an  eccentric  man  ; 
and  he  made  no  mention  of  a  certain  evening  when  he  warmed  his 
hands  at  the  Gatehouse  fire  and  looked  steadily  down  upon  a  certain 
heap  of  torn  and  miry  clothes  upon  the  floor." 


THE    MURDER    OF 


His  visitor,  wooden  of  aspect,  sat  stiffly  in  a  chair, 
watching  his  recovery.  "  Do  you  know,"  said  Jasper 
after  a  hurried  meal  and  when  he  had  sat  meditating 
for  a  few  minutes  "  do  you  know  that  I  find  some  crumbs 
of  comfort  in  the  communication  with  which  you  have 
so  much  amazed  me  ?  I  begin  to  beheve  it  possible 
that  he  may  have  disappeared  from  among  us  of  his  own 
accord  and  may  yet  be  alive  and  well."  ^*  Mr.  Cris- 
parkle  came  in  at  the  moment  and  Jasper  repeated  this 
to  him.  "  I  pray  to  Heaven  it  may  turn  out  so," 
exclaimed  Mr.  Crisparkle.  "  Mr.  Grewgious  ought  to 
be  possessed  of  the  whole  case."  Jasper  went  on 
"  He  shall  not  through  any  suppression  of  mine  be 
informed  of  a  part  of  it  and  kept  in  ignorance  of  another 
part  of  it,  I  wish  him  to  be  good  enough  to  understand 
that  the  communication  he  has  made  to  me  has  hope- 
fully influenced  my  mind  in  spite  of  its  having  been 
before  this  mysterious  occurrence  took  place,  profoundly 
impressed  against  young  Landless." 

This  fairness  troubled  the  Minor  Canon  much.  He  felt 
that  he  was  not  as  open  in  his  own  dealing.  He  charged 
against  himself  reproachfully  that  he  had  suppressed 
so  far  the  two  points  of  a  second  strong  outbreak 
of  temper  against  Edwin  Drood  on  the  part  of  Neville 
and  of  the  passion  of  jealousy  i^  having  to  his  own  certain 
knowledge  flamed  up  in  Neville's  breast  against  him. 

'^^  May  yet  be  Alive  and  V/ell.  Dickens  in  manuscript  "  Plans" 
describes  this  as  "  Jasper's  artful  use  of  the  communication  on  his 
recovery."  It  would  suit  Jasper  equally  well  whether  it  was  commonly 
supposed  that  Edwin  had  absconded  or  that  he  had  been  murdered 
by  Neville.     In  either  case  suspicion  would  be  diverted  from  himself. 

^^  See  next  page. 


EDWIN    DROOD  59 

He  had  been  balancing  in  his  mind,  much  to  its  distress, 
whether  his  volmiteering  to  tell  these  two  fragments  of 
truth  at  this  time  would  not  be  tantamount  to  a  piecing 
together  of  falsehood  in  the  place  of  truth.  However, 
here  was  a  model  before  him.  He  hesitated  no  longer. 
Expressing  his  absolute  confidence  in  the  complete 
clearance  of  his  pupil  from  the  least  taint  of  suspicion, 
sooner  or  later,  he  avowed  that  his  confidence  in  that 
young  gentleman  had  been  formed  in  spite  of  his  confiden- 
tial knowledge  that  his  temper  was  of  the  hottest  and 
fiercest,  and  that  it  was  directly  incensed  against  Mr. 
Jasper's  nephew  by  the  circumstance  of  his  roman- 
tically supposing  himself  to  be  enamoured  of  the  same 
young  lady.  The  sanguine  reaction  manifest  in  Mr. 
Jasper  was  proof  even  against  this  unlooked  for  de- 
claration.is  It  turned  him  paler  ;  but  he  repeated  that 
he  would  cling  to  the  hope  he  had  derived  from  Mr. 
Grewgious,  and  that  if  no  trace  of  his  dear  boy  were 
found,  leading  to  the  dreadful  inference  that  he  had 
been  made  away  with,  he  would  cherish  unto  the  last 

15  Neville's  Jealousy.  Ses  above.  Crisparkle's  present  can- 
dour to  Jasper  is  thus  traduced  by  Jasper  to  Rosa  six  months 
later  on.  "  It  was  hawked  through  the  late  enquiries  by  Mr.  Cris- 
parkle  that  Landless  had  confessed  to  him  that  he  was  a  rival  of  my 
lost  boy." 

16  This  Unlooked  for  Declaration.  Neville's  love  for  Rosa  was 
news  to  Jasper  and  news  of  dreadful  import  to  each  of  them. 

Jasper  made  it  thenceforth  the  one  object  of  his  wasted  life  to 
purge  upon  the  gallows  the  inexpiable  offence  of  Neville  in  loving  Rosa. 
The  disclosure  turned  Jasper  pale  and  instantly  induced  a  second  rapid 
change  of  plan.  Jasper  could  no  longer  support  the  absconding  theory. 
He  must  stand  out  for  murder  at  the  hands  of  Neville.  Hence  his 
"  sanguine  reaction  "  is  straight- way  watered  down  and  made  de- 
pendent on  the  non-finding  of  any  trace  of  Edwin.  Steps  are  then 
taken  by  Jasper  to  secure  that  such  traces  shall  be  found. 


6o  THE    MURDER    OF 


stretch   of   possibility   the   idea   that   he   might   have 
absconded  of  his  own  wild  will. 

Now  it  fell  out  that  Mr.  Crisparkle  going  away  from 
this  conference  still  very  uneasy  in  his  mind  took  a 
memorable  night  walk.i'  He  walked  to  Cloisterham 
Weir.  He  often  did  so,  and  consequently  there  was 
nothing  remarkable  in  his  footsteps  tending  that  way. 
But  the  preoccupation  of  his  mind  so  hindered  him  from 
planning  any  walk,  or  taking  heed  of  the  objects  he 
passed  that  his  first  consciousness  of  being  near  the  Weir 
was  derived  from  the  sound  of  the  falling  water  close 
at  hand. 

"  How  did  I  come  here  ?  "  was  his  first  thought  as 
he  stopped. 

"  Why  did  I  come  here  ?  "  was  his  second.  Then 
he  stood  intently  listening  to  the  water.  A  famihar 
passage  in  his  reading  about  airy  tongues  that  syllable 
men's  names  ^^  rose  so  unbidden  to  his  ear  that  he  put 
it  from  him  with  his  hand  as  if  it  were  tangible.  It 
was  starlight.  The  water  came  over  the  Weir  with  its 
usual  sound  on  a  cold  starlight  night,  and  little  could  be 

17  A  Memorable  Night  Walk.  This  walk  I  believe  to  have  been 
imposed  upon  Crisparkle  by  Jasper  by  "  telepathy,"  "  hypnotism," 
or  "  mesmerism  "  as  in  those  days  it  would  be  called  no  doubt. 
The  alternative  theory  is  perhaps  as  likely  that  Jasper  relied  on  Cris- 
parkle's  known  habit  of  bathing  at  Cloisterham  Weir  for  ensuring  the 
discovery  of  Edwin's  watch  and  pin  placed  there  by  Jasper  for  the 
purpose  of  their  being  so  discovered.  The  watch,  it  will  be  remembered 
had  been  wound  at  2-20  p.m.  on  Xmas  Eve  and  had  run  down  when 
found  in  the  water,  Neville  was  arrested  before  mid-day  on  Christmas 
Day.  Unless  therefore  the  watch  had  an  exceptionally  short  run, 
it  could  not  have  run  down  in  his  possession.  If  Jasper  had  it,  as  no 
doubt  he  had,  he  cannot  have  pJaced  it  in  the  water  on  the  same  night 
as  the  murder. 

1^  See  next  page. 


EDWIN    DROOD  6i 

seen  of  it ;    yet  Mr.  Crisparkle  had  a  strange  idea  that 
something  unusual  hung  about  the  place  !     He  reasoned 
with   himself.     What   was   it  ?     Where   was   it  ?     Put 
it   to   the   proof.     Which   sense   did   it   address  ?     No 
sense  reported  anything  unusual  there.     Knowing  very 
well  that  the  mystery  with  which  his  mind  was  occupied 
might  of  itself  give  the  place  this  haunted  air,  he  strained 
those  hawk's  eyes  of  his  for  the  correction  of  his  sight. 
Nothing  in  the  least  unusual  was  remotely  shadowed 
forth.     But  he  resolved  he  would  come  back  early  in  the 
morning.     The  Weir  ran  through  his  broken  sleep  all 
night  and  he  was  back  again  at  sunrise.     His  eyes  were 
attracted  keenly  to  one  spot.     It  struck  him  that  at 
that  spot — a  corner  of  the  Weir — something  glistened 
which  did  not  move  and  come  over  with  the  ghstening 
water    drops    but    remained    stationary.     He    plunged 
into  the  icy  water  and  swam  for  the  spot ;    cUmbing 
the  timbers  he  took  from  them  caught  among  their 
interstices  by  its  chain  a  gold  watch,  bearing  engraved 
upon  its  back  E.D.^^    He  dived  and  dived  and  dived 
until  he  could  bear  the  cold  no  more.     His  notion  was 
that  he  would  find  the  body  ;    he  only  found  a  shirt- 
pin  sticking  in  some  mud  and  ooze. 

IS  Airy  tongues  that  syllable  Men's  Names. 

MILTON  — "  COMUS." 

"  What  might  this  be  ?     A  thousand  fantasies 
Begin   to   throng  into  my  memory. 
Of  calling  shapes,  and  beck'ning  shadows  dire, 
And  airy  tongues  that  syllable  men's  names 
On  sands  and  shores  and  desert  wildernesses." 

1*  E.D. — If  (as  some  suppose)  the  murder  was  hallucination  how 
came  this  watch  and  pin  to  be  where  they  were  found  ? 


EPISODE  VI. 
MR.   JASPER  PROPOSES. 


64 


THE    MURDER    OF 


EPISODE    VI. 
MR.   JASPER    PROPOSES. 

MR.  JASPER  is  a  dark  man  of  some  six  and 
twenty  with  thick  lustrous  well  arranged  black 
hair,  and  whiskers.  He  looks  older  than  he  is 
as  dark  men  often  do.  His  voice  is  deep  and  good,  his 
face  and  figure  are  good  but  his  manner  is  a  Httle  sombre. 
Lay  Precentor,  or  Lay  Clerk  at  Rochester  Cathedral, 
he  has  the  reputation  of  having  done  wonders  with  the 
choir  there.  He  has  the  gift  of  teaching,  and  besides 
training  the  choir  also  acts  as  music  master  to  the  girls 
at  the  Nun's  House  School.  Altogether  he  seems  cut 
out  for  his  vocation.  But  he  hates  it !  Unknown  to 
others  and  unsuspected  by  Edwin  even,  he  hates  it 
all.  Jasper  has  long  been  secretly  and  desperately  in 
love  with  Rosa.  Rosa,  as  we  have  seen,  is  bound 
to  Edwin  and  daily  drawing  nearer  marriage.  Jasper 
has  never  spoken  to  Rosa  about  love.  Never  !  but  he 
has  made  a  slave  of  her  with  his  looks.  He  has  forced 
her  to  understand  him  without  his  saying  a  word. 

Jasper  is  an  opium  smoker.  He  took  to  opium  when 
he  could  no  longer  bear  his  life  ;  his  love  and  jealousy 
in  the  cramping  monotony  of  his  existence  became  a 
physical  pain — an  agony — which  overcame  him.  He 
took  to  opium  to  get  relief.  He  got  it.  He  got  it  at  a 
price.  Carrying  Rosa's  image  in  his  arms  he  wandered 
through  paradises  in  visions ;    carrying  her  image  in 


EDWIN    DROOD  65 

his  arms  he  rushed  in  visions  through  Hells.  From 
Paradise  and  Hell  alike  he  woke  to  the  distasteful  work 
of  the  day,  and  to  the  wakeful  misery  of  the  night. 

Watching  day  by  day  the  ill-matched  pair — his 
nephew  and  his  loved  one — Jasper  cherished  to  the  last 
stretch  of  possibihty  the  hope  of  their  releasing  one 
another  and  leaving  his  loved  one  to  him.  If  not — 
and  day  by  day  the  wretch's  hope  grew  less  as  the 
arrangements  for  the  marriage  still  went  forward — 
if  not  Edwin  must  die.  Jasper  is  resolved  to  kill  him, 
and  has  his  plans  prepared.  Finally  he  sees,  or  thinks 
he  sees,  the  couple  seal  their  parents'  compact  with  a 
lover's  kiss.  That  kiss  has  sealed  the  doom  of  Edwin 
who  dies  on  Christmas  Eve,  strangled  by  Jasper  secretly. 

Six  months  and  more  elapse  after  the  murder  before 
Jasper  ventures  to  renew  pursuit  of  Rosa.  Then,  calling 
at  the  school  and  finding  Rosa  there  alone,  he  forces  her 
to  come  to  him.  Rosa  chooses  the  open  air,  but  even 
there  he  magnetises  her.  He  stands  leaning  lightly 
on  the  sundial  in  the  garden.  She  cannot  resist  his 
horrible  complusion  but  sits  down  with  bent  head  on 
the  garden  seat  beside  him.  Both  are  in  mourning. 
Jasper  questions  Rosa  about  her  music  lessons  and  her 
refusal  to  go  on  with  them.  She  is  angered  and  declines 
to  be  cross-questioned  or  to  answer.  His  gloating 
admiration  of  the  touch  of  anger  on  her,  and  of  the  fire 
and  animation  brought  by  it  causes  her  rising  spirit  to 
fall  again  and  she  struggles  with  a  sense  of  shame, 
affront  and  fear  much  as  at  his  following  of  her  lips 
when  he  was  her  music  master.  When  she  rises  to  go 
he  makes  her  sit  again  by  threatening  her  with  harm 


66  THE    MURDER    OF 

to  others  if  she  does  go.  When  he  calls  her  "  Dearest," 
"  charming,"  "  my  beloved,"  she  again  starts  up  to  go 
but  his  face  is  so  wicked  and  menacing  that  her  flight 
is  arrested  by  horror  as  she  looks  at  him.  Frozen  with 
fear  she  cannot  flee  him. 

So  arrested,  so  compelled,  Rosa  Hstens  to  her  first 
proposal.     Jasper  declares  to  her  his  mad  unholy  love. 

"  Rosa,  even  when  my  dear  boy  was  affianced  to 
you  I  loved  you  madly,  even  when  I  strove  to  make  him 
more  ardently  devoted  to  you,  I  loved  you  madly,  even 
when  he  gave  me  the  picture  of  your  lovely  face  so 
carelessly  traduced  by  him,  which  I  feigned  to  hang 
always  in  my  sight  for  his  sake,  but  worshipped  in  tor- 
ment for  years,  I  loved  you  madly  ;  I  endured  it  all  in 
silence.  So  long  as  you  were  his  or  so  long  as  I  supposed 
you  to  be  his,  I  hid  my  secret  loyally  did  I  not  ?  " 
Jasper's  lie  so  gross,  while  the  mere  words  in  which  it 
is  told  are  so  true  is  more  than  Rosa  can  endure.  She 
answers  with  kindhng  indignation,  "  you  were  as  false 
throughout,  sir,  as  you  are  now,  you  were  false  to  him 
daily  and  hourl5^  You  know  that  you  made  my  life 
unhappy  by  your  pursuit  of  me.  You  know  that  you 
made  me  afraid  to  open  his  generous  eyes  and  that 
you  forced  me  for  his  own  trusting  good,  good  sake  to 
keep  the  truth  from  him  that  you  were  a  bad,  bad 
man." 

His  preservation  of  his  easy  attitude  rendering  his 
working  features  and  his  convulsive  hands  absolutely 
diabolical,  he  returns  with  a  fierce  extreme  of  admiration. 
"  How  beautiful  you  are  !  You  are  more  beautiful 
in  anger  than  in  repose.     I  don't  ask  you  for  your  love. 


EDWIN    DROOD  67 

give  me  yourself  and  your  hatred  ;    give  me  yourself 
and  that  enchanting  scorn  ;    it  will  be  enough  for  me." 

Impatient  tears  rise  to  the  eyes  of  the  trembling 
little  beauty  and  her  face  flames.  She  rises  to  leave 
him  in  indignation.  He  detains  her  with  a  threat. 
"  You  care  for  your  bosom  friend's  good  name  ;  you 
care  for  her  peace  of  mind,  then  remove  the  shadow  of 
the  gallows  from  her  dear  one  !  " 

"  You  dare  propose  to  me  to     .     .     . 

"  Darling  I  dare  propose  to  you.  Stop  there.  If 
it  be  bad  to  idolize  you  I  am  the  worst  of  men  ;  if  it 
be  good  I  am  the  best.  My  love  for  you  is  above  all 
other  love.  My  truth  to  you  is  above  all  other  truth. 
Let  me  have  hope  and  favour  and  I  am  a  forsworn  man 
for  your  sweet  sake.  So  that  you  take  me  were  it  even 
mortally  hating  me.  I  love  you,  love  you,  love  you. 
If  you  were  to  cast  me  off  now — but  you  will  not !  You 
would  never  be  rid  of  me  ;  no  one  should  come  between 
us.     I  would  pursue  you  to  the  death  !  " 

The  handmaid  coming  out  to  open  the  gate  for  him, 
he  quietly  pulls  off  his  hat  as  a  parting  salute  and  goes 
away  with  no  greater  show  of  agitation  than  is  visible 
in  the  efhgy  of  Mr.  Sapsea's  father  opposite.  Rosa 
faints  in  going  upstairs. 


EPISODE  VII. 
ON   SECRET  SERVICE. 


70  THE    MURDER    OF 


EPISODE  VII. 
ON    SECRET    SERVICE. 

AT  about  this  time — on  Wednesday,  July  5th  to  be 
precise — a  stranger  appeared  in  Rochester, 
Dick  Datchery  was  the  name  he  went  by  in  that 
picturesque  old  city,  Tartar  was  his  name  in  London. 
Yesterday  he  was  up  the  river  with  Rosa,  Grewgious  and 
Lobley  in  a  row-boat.  To-day  he  has  come  down  the 
Thames  in  his  yacht  with  Lobley  from  Greenhithe  to 
Gravesend.  Thence  he  has  travelled  on  alone  by  road 
to  Rochester  where  he  now  announces  his  intention  of 
taking  a  lodging  for  a  month  or  two  with  a  view  of 
settling  down  there  altogether.  Meanwhile,  Rosa  pines 
in  Bloomsbury  waiting  for  something  that  will  not  come, 
that  never  comes  !  "  Until  as  the  days  crept  on  and 
nothing  happened  the  neighbours  began  to  say  that  the 
pretty  girl  at  BilHckin's  who  looked  so  wistfully  and  so 
much  out  of  the  windows  of  the  drawing  room  seemed 
to  be  losing  her  spirits. "1  Why  this  base  desertion  ? 
What  had  happened  ? 

To  understand  the  situation,  we  must  retrace  our 
steps  as  far  as  the  Midsummer  Recess  at  the  Nun's  House. 
Not  so  far  in  time  as  in  occurrences.     That  was  last 

1  Losing  Her  Spirits.  Let  any  reader  who  still  doubts  that  it  was 
for  Tartar  that  Rosa  was  waiting  and  pining  at  Billickin's  consider 
this  passage  : — 

"  The  pretty  girl  might  have  lost  her  spirits  but  for  the  accident 
of  lighting  on  some  books  of  voyages  and  sea  adventures.  As  a 
compensation  against  their  romance  Miss  Twinkleton  made  the  most  of 
all  the  ....  statistics  ;  while  Rosa  hstening  intently  made  the  most 
of  what  was  nearest  to  her  heart.     So  they  both  did  better  than  before." 


EDWIN    DROOD  71 

Monday,  and  to-day  is  only  Wednesday.  Then  the 
High  Street  was  musical  with  the  cry  in  various  silvery 
voices,  "Goodbye,  Rosebud  darling!  "  and  among  the 
departing  coaches  carrying  the  young  ladies  to  their 
several  homes  was  one  which  carried  Helena  to  attend 
her  brother's  fortunes  in  Staple  Inn.  Rosa  remains  and 
the  same  afternoon  finds  her  alone,  Mrs.  Tisher  being 
absent  on  leave  and  Miss  Twinkleton  having  contributed 
herself  and  a  veal  pie  to  a  picnic.  Jasper  calls,  declares 
his  mad  love  and  announces  his  threat  to  Helena's  peace 
of  mind  and  to  the  life  of  Neville.  Rosa  the  same  night, 
flees  to  Grewgious  and  tells  him  all.  Grewgious  hears 
her  story  understandingly  and  begs  to  be  told  a  second 
time  those  parts  which  bear  on  Helena  and  Neville. 
Next  day,  Tuesday,  Tartar  and  Rosa  meet  and  fall  in 
love.  "  Poor,  poor  Neville !  "  Helena  divines  the 
facts  and  seems  to  compassionate  somebody.  "  My 
poor  Neville."  But  Rosa's  tale  of  Jasper's  threatenings 
requires  attention.  "  Would  it  be  best,"  Helena  won- 
ders "to  wait  until  any  more  maligning  and  pursuing  of 
Neville  on  the  part  of  this  wretch  shall  disclose  itself 
or  to  try  and  anticipate  it  so  far  as  .to  find  out  whether 
any  such  goes  on  darkly  about  them  in  Staple  Inn  ? 
Neville  has  not  so  much  as  exchanged  a  word  with  anyone 
but  Mr.  Tartar  there.  Now  if  Mr.  Tartar  would  call  to 
see  him  openly  and  often  ;  if  he  would  spare  a  minute 
for  the  purpose  frequently  ;  if  he  would  even  do  so 
almost  daily;    something  might  come  of  it. 2" 

2  "  Something  might  come  of  it."  No  wonder  Rosa  is  perplexed. 
Helena's  plan  was  nearly  as  nebulous  as  that  "  something  "  which 
Mr.  Micawber  was  expecting  to  turn  up. 


72  THE    MURDER    OF 

"  Something  might  come  of  it,  dear  ?  "  repeated 
Rosa  with  a  highly  perplexed  face.  "  Something 
might  ?  " 

"  If  Neville's  movements  are  really  watched  and 
if  the  purpose  really  is  to  isolate  him  from  all  friends 
and  acquaintances  and  wear  his  daily  life  out  grain  by 
grain  (which  would  seem  to  be  the  threat  ^  to  you) 
does  it  not  appear  likely  *  that  his  enemy  would  in  some 
way  communicate  with  Mr.  Tartar  to  warn  him  off  from 
Neville  ?  " 

"  I  see,"  cries  Rosa,  and  Mr.  Tartar  at  once  de- 
clares his  readiness  to  act  and  to  enter  on  his  task  that 
very  day.  What  then  is  Mr.  Tartar  doing  at  Rochester 
the  very  next  day.  Wliat  of  his  promise  ?  What  of 
Helena's  hope  to  hear  of  Rosebud  from  Mr.  Tartar  ? 
No  wonder  Rosa  is  hke  to  lose  her  spirits  looking  and 
waiting  in  vain  for  the  sailor  to  call  at  Billickin's. 

But  we  have  forgotten  Grewgious.  He  was  no 
party  to  Helena's  suggested  plan  ^  of  action.  He  was  no 
party  to  Helena's  misunderstanding  of  what  was 
threatened.  He  had  Rosa's  narration  clearly  put  away 
and  knew  that  "  the  gallows  "  was  the  threat  to  Neville 
not  "  isolation."  The  peace  of  mind  to  be  disturbed 
was    Helena's    not    Neville's.       Mr.    Grewgious    held 

3  "  Which  would  seem  to  be  the  threat."  Helena  had  not  understood. 
Perhaps  Rosa  had  toned  down  to  her  the  threat  of  "  the  shadow  of  the 
gallows,"  for  her  dear  one.  Mr.  Grewgious  on  the  other  hand,  per- 
fectly understood  what  Jasper  threatened. 

4  "  Does  it  not  appear  likely."  Yes,  if  the  hypothesis  be  granted  ; 
but  if  the  hypothesis  was  mistaken  the  inference  loses  its  foundation. 

5  Grewgious  no  party  to  Helena's  plan.  He  was  specially  consulted 
about  the  desirability  of  taking  action  and  agreed,  but  was  markedly 
not  consulted  about  the  particular  action  suggested. 


EDWIN    DROOD  73 

decidedly  to  the  general  principle  that  if  you  could  steal 
a  march  upon  a  brigand  or  a  wild  beast  you  had  better 
do  it ;  and  he  also  held  decidedly  to  the  special  case 
that  John  Jasper  was  a  brigand  and  a  wild  beast  in 
combination.  But  he  never  endorsed  Helena's  plan. 
He  had  a  plan  of  his  own  as  he  had  told  them.  Jasper 
hoped  by  watching  Neville  in  Staple  Inn  so  to  accumulate 
circumstances  against  him,  so  to  direct,  sharpen  and  point 
them  that  they  might  slay  him.  Why  not  turn  his 
weapon  against  himself  and  thus  steal  a  march  upon  him  ? 
By  perseverance  the  missing  link,  the  wanting  clue  which 
would  prove  his  guilt  might  be  discovered  and  the  shadow 
of  the  gallows  be  shifted  to  him  and  the  burden  of  unjust 
suspicion  be  removed  for  ever  from  young  Landless. 
Why  not  set  a  watch  on  Jasper  at  Rochester,  the  counter- 
part of  the  watch  he  keeps  on  Neville  here  in  Staple  ? 
If  so,  what  better  watchman  than  this  young  sailor, 
Tartar,  so  keen  on  Rosa  and  unknown  or  scarcely  known 
to  Jasper  ?  But  will  he  undertake  the  task  ?  Mr. 
Grewgious  will  put  it  to  him. 

Rosa  is  safely  tucked  in  bed  at  Furnivals  and 
dreaming  of  the  everlastingly  green  garden  and  the 
beanstalk  country  and  the  Admiral's  cabin — and  perhaps 
the  Admiral.  The  lieutenant,  meanwhile,  is  seated  in 
Grewgious'  chair  in  Grewgious'  chambers  being  fully 
confided  in  by  Mr.  Grewgious. 

Mr.  Crisparkle,  able  now  to  reassure  the  anxious 
Miss  Twinkleton  and  to  arrange  for  her  to  join  Rosa 
at  Billickins'  on  Thursday,  has  returned  to  Rochester. 
His  short  summary  to  Tartar  of  the  distresses  of  Neville 
and  his  sister  has  paved  the  way  for  the  fuller  and  more 


74  THE    MURDER    OF 

particular  account  of  the  whole  mysterious  story  which 
Grewgious  is  now  in  course  of  giving  Tartar.  Bazzard 
is  not  about.6  it  is  night  time  and  long  past  office  hours. 
Tartar  has  been  told  already  of  Edwin's  relations  to 
Rosa  and  to  Jasper  and  of  his  mysterious  disappearance 
last  Christmas.  He  now  learns  from  Grewgious  of 
Jasper's  pursuit  of  Rosa  as  a  lover.  Anger  springs  up 
in  Tartar.  "  Yesterday,"  continues  Grewgious,  "  the 
scoundrel  dared  openly  to  propose  to  her,"  and  he  joins 
to  this  a  lucid  and  precise  account  to  Tartar  of  the 
exact  terms  in  which  Jasper  had  dared  to  threaten  and 
propose  to  Rosa.  "  Damn  him,  how  dare  he  !  "  No 
question  now  if  Tartar  will  help  unmask  him  !  The 
villain  !  To  force  his  horrid  shameless  love  on  that 
young,  innocent,  unprotected  lady  !  Damn  him  again  ! 
And  now  to  plans  for  her  protection  and  the  disclosure 
of  his  villainy.  The  man  takes  opium.  So  much 
Grewgious  knows  from  Rosa  who  got  it  from  Edwin. 
Tick  that  off.  He  had  ample  motive  for  murder  in  his 
raging  jealousy  fed  by  the  parting  kiss  he  saw  and  mis- 
interpreted. Tick  that  off.  Jealousy  of  a  new  rival — 
Neville — has  urged  him  on  to  six  months'  silent  labour 
in  the  effort  to  bring  the  latter  to  the  gallows  and  burning 
jealousy  still  spurs  him  on.  But  we  may  doubt  if  pru- 
dent Mr.  Grewgious  told  this  to  Tartar  just  yet.  Suffi- 
cient for  Lieutenant  Tartar  that  Jasper  is  bent  on 
fabricating  evidence  which  shall  bring  Neville  to  trial 
and   conviction.     He   must   be  watched   and   his   plan 


^Bazzard  is  not  about.     He  is  "  off  duty  there  altogether  just  at 
present  "    it  will  be  remembered. 


EDWIN    DROOD  75 

prevented.  Will  Lieutenant  Tartar  undertake  the  task  ? 
His  yacht  down  Greenhithe  way  might  be  taken  round 
to  Gravesend  and  Lieutenant  Tartar  might  appear  at 
Rochester  a  stranger.  Some  slight  disguise— a  wig  for 
instance — would  be  advisable  on  the  off  chance  of  Jasper 
having  noticed  him  in  Staple. 

Tartar  hesitates  an  instant.  The  plan  will  mean 
indeterminate  exile  from  Miss  Rosa!  He  can  hardly 
bring  that  reason  before  her  guardian  just  at  present, 
however.  After  all,  he  only  met  his  love  this  morning 
as  time  goes  on  this  planet !  His  promise  to  visit  Neville 
daily  is  urged  in  explanation  of  his  slowness  to  respond, 
by  which,  as  he  sees,  Grewgious  is  puzzled  and  dis- 
appointed. But  for  that,  he  tells  him,  he  would  jump 
at  any  sort  of  opportunity  to  serve  Miss  Rosa  and  the 
others.  Grewgious  is  reheved.  "  If  that  is  all,"  he 
will  undertake  to  obtain  absolution  from  the  promise 
and  plausibly  to  explain  Tartar's  absence  to  the  Land- 
lesses— "  Miss  Rosa  too  ?  "  suggests  the  sailor.  "  I 
think  it  wisest  that  she  shall  know  nothing  of  this  as 
yet,"  says  Mr.  Grewgious,  "  but  if  she  asks  after  you, 
as  no  doubt  she  will,  I  will  explain  to  her  that  you  are 
absent  on  her  service."  With  that  poor  consolation 
Tartar  must  be  content. 

So  now  we  know  how  it  comes  about  that  Rosa 
pines  and  peaks  in  gritty  London,  and  Tartar  in  his  wig 
and  pseudonym  of  Datchery  takes  lodgings  at  the  Topes, 
in  Rochester  and  lounges  about  the  Precincts  hke  the 
chartered  bore  of  the  city. 

In  a  detective  the  bold  step  is  the  wise  one.  He 
confronts  Jasper  in  his  own  room  face  to  face  at  once, 


76  THE    MURDER    OF 

and  so  he  gets  to  know  and  be  known  by  him.  He  also 
gets  to  know  the  Mayor  and  to  be  well  estabhshed  with 
him.  As  a  cat  watches  a  mouse  hole  so  he  takes  his 
post  with  open  door  and  watches  Jasper's  postern 
entrance  opposite.  He  misses  no  opportunity  of  getting 
to  know  the  lowly  local  characters.  Deputy  and  he 
are  "  Winks "  and  "  Dick,"  and  Durdles  is  open  to 
seeing  him  any  evening  if  he  brings  liquor  for  two  with 
him.  So  things  are  going  famously  when  another 
stranger  appears  in  Rochester.  She  turns  in  under  the 
archway  just  after  Jasper  has  arrived  there  and  gone 
up  his  postern  staircase.  Tartar  seeing  her  brought  to 
a  standstill  asks  whom  she  is  looking  for  ?  "A  gentle- 
man in  mourning '^  who  passed  in  there  this  minute,"  is 
her  answer.  So  she  wants  Jasper  does  she  ?  What 
can  her  business  be  with  him  ?  Told  his  dwelling  and  his 
name  she  does  not  go  to  see  him,  but  asks  his  calling. 
She  seems  to  want  to  see  and  hear  him  singing  in  the 
choir.  Odd  that !  Where  does  she  come  from  ? 
Jasper  and  the  others  have  just  come  back  from  town. 
Is  she  from  London  too  ?  She  does  not  answer  that. 
Is  she  after  money  ?  Tartar  rattles  the  loose  money  in 
his  trouser  pockets.  Yes,  she  asks  for  money  to  pay 
for  her  traveller's  lodging — where  Winks  is  servant. 
She  knows  that  place  then.  Has  she  been  here  often  ? 
Once  in  all  her  life  she  says.  What's  that  ?  Opium  ! 
The  plot  begins  to  thicken.  She  seeks  Jasper  who  takes 
opium  and  she  takes  opium.  More  to  follow.  The 
last  time  she  was  here  was  Christmas  Eve  when  a  young 

■^  "  In  Mourning^     Manuscript. 


EDWIN    DROOD  77 

gentleman  gave  her  three  and  sixpence  and  the  young 
gentleman's  name  was  Edwin  and  she  asked  him  if  he 
had  a  sweetheart  and  he  said  he  hadn't.  Phew  !  That 
must  have  been  Edwin  Drood  after  he  had  jilted  Rosa  !  « 
Tartar  could  get  no  more  from  her  just  then  without 
asking  dangerous  questions  so  gives  her  the  three  and 
six  she  asked  him  for  and  lets  her  go  her  way.  Little 
enough  he  has  learned,  and  yet  there  is  promise  in  it. 
Probably,  however,  she  merely  wants  to  sell  Jasper 
more  opium.  But  why  see  him  at  7  o'clock  in  the 
Cathedral  if  that  is  all  ?  Anyhow  Tartar  will  see  if  she 
really  does  go  there  and  meantime  he  will  get  Winks 
to  find  out  where  she  comes  from — exactly  where  she 
lives.  The  knowledge  may  prove  useful.  John  Jasper's 
lamp  is  kindled,  and  his  lighthouse  is  shining  when 
Tartar  returns,  alone,  towards  it.  As  mariners  on  a 
dangerous  voyage  approaching  an  iron-bound  coast 
may  look  along  the  beams  of  the  warning  light  to  the 
haven  l5^ng  beyond  it  that  may  never  be  reached  so  the 
sailor-detective's  wistful  gaze  is  directed  to  this  beacon 
and  beyond.  Having  fetched  his  hat  Tartar  goes  out 
again  and  discovers  Deputy  or  rather  "  Winks."  Good  ! 
Winks  confirms  that  she  is  an  opium  smoker  from  Lon- 
don and  is  going  to  the  "  Kin-free-der-el,"  as  Winks 
pronounces  it,  in  the  morning.  "  We  are  getting  on  !  " 
Still  a  moderate  stroke  Tartar  concludes,  is  all  that  he 
is  justified  in  scoring  up  as  yet. 

Next  morning,  in  the  Cathedral,  the  service  is  pretty 

^  After  he  had  jilted  Rosa.  This  is  scarcely  fair  to  Edwin  but  we 
must  bear  in  mind  that  Tartar  never  knew  him  and  was  himself  in 
love  with  Edwin's  rejected  fiancee. 


78  THE    MURDER    OF 

well  advanced,  before  Tartar  can  discern  the  opium 
woman.  She  is  behind  a  pillar  carefully  withdrawn 
from  Jasper's  view,  but  regards  him  with  the  closest 
attention.  Ah  unconscious  of  her  presence  he  chants 
and  sings.  She  grins  when  he  is  most  musically  fervid 
and — yes,  Tartar  sees  her  do  it ! — shakes  her  fist  at  him 
behind  the  pillar's  friendly  shelter.  Tartar  looks  again 
to  convince  himself.  Yes  again !  She  hugs  herself 
in  her  lean  arms  and  then  shakes  both  fists  at  the  leader 
of  the  choir. 

The  service  over  Tartar  accosts  her  outside  the 
Cathedral.  "  Well,  Mistress,  Good-morning.  You  have 
seen  him  ?  "  "  I've  seen  him  deary  ;  I've  seen  him  ! 
Know  him  !  Better  far  than  all  the  Reverend  Parsons 
put  together  know  him." 

Before  sitting  down  to  his  neat,  clean  breakfast, 
Tartar  opens  his  corner  cupboard  door  ;  takes  his  bit 
of  chalk  from  its  shelf ;  adds  one  thick  hne  to  the  score 
extending  from  the  top  of  the  cupboard  door  to  the 
bottom  ;  and  then  falls  to  with  an  appetite.  No  won- 
der !  Patience  and  perseverance  are  bringing  their 
reward.  This  woman  knows  Jasper  for  what  he  is. 
She  hates  him.  He  does  not  know  it.  She  hves  in 
London  and  has  followed  him  down  here.  Jasper 
will  return  to  her.  That  will  give  the  sought  for 
opportunity  against  him.  With  the  woman  as  an  ally, 
Tartar  may  be  spectator  of  his  opium  ravings  and  learn 
his  secrets  from  him.     Good  indeed  ! 


EDWIN    DROOD  79 


EPISODE   VIII. 
LANDLESS   PROPOSES. 


Ho.  !.] 


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EPISODE    VIII. 
LANDLESS    PROPOSES.i 

WHILST  Tartar  was  away  at  Rochester  2  the  days 
dragged  very  heavily  with  Rosa.     The  gritty 
state  of  things  had  few  rehefs.     London  waited 
and  waited  always  for  someone  who  never  came. 

To  Neville,  too,  in  Staple  Inn,  the  days  were  often 
long  and  listless.  Whilst  he  has  Helena  with  him  things 
are  better  but  her  school  hohdays  are  drawing  to  a  close, 
and  she  has  to  return  to  Rochester  to-morrow.  Neville 
will  then  be  solitary  once  again.     The  promise  made  to 

1  Landless  Proposes.  The  details  of  this  scene  are  necessarily 
pure  h>T)othesis,  but  the  evidence  for  the  scene  itself  is  on  the  cover. 
It  has  been  suggested  that  the  kneehng  figure  kissing  Rosa's  hand  is 
Jasper  or  else  Tartar.  But  each  of  these  is  shewn  elsewhere  upon  the 
cover  and  neither  is  the  kneeling  figure.  The  only  certain  clue  to  the 
identity  of  the  latter  is  his  moustache.  Which  character,  if  any,  had 
a  moustache  ?  The  answer  seems  at  first  to  be  that  no  moustache 
is  mentioned.  But  the  school-girls  at  the  Nuns'  house  knew  better. 
"  Nothing  escapes  their  notice,  sir."  Recall  the  quarrel  scene  acted 
by  Neville  and  Edwin  and  imitated  by  the  Misses  Ferdinand  and 
Giggles.  "  Neville  flings  the  dregs  of  his  wine  at  Edwin  Drood,  and  is 
in  the  act  of  flinging  the  goblet  after  it,  when  his  arm  is  caught  in  the 
nick  of  time  by  Jasper."  "  Miss  Ferdinand  got  into  new  trouble  by 
surreptitiously  clapping  on  a  paper  moustache  at  dinner-time  and 
going  through  the  motions  of  aiming  a  water-bottle  at  Miss  Giggles 
who  drew  a  table-spoon  in  self  defence."  On  Miss  Ferdinand's  evidence 
we  shall  be  safe  in  saying  that  Neville  wore  moustaches.  Clearly  then 
it  is  he  who  kneels  at  Rosa's  feet  kissing  her  hand  upon  the  cover. 
The  rustic  seat  gives  the  clue  to  where  the  scene  took  place.  Even 
now  the  garden  of  Staple  Inn  would  make  a  prettj/  setting  for  a  love 
scene.  In  1842,  it  was  neither  so  public  as  now  it  is  nor  yet  so  small. 
{Scj  Appendix  II). 

2  Tartar  away  at  Rochester.     As  Datchery  (See  Episode  VII). 


82  THE    MURDER    OF 

visit  him  by  Mr.  Tartar  has  not  been  kept.  Mr.  Cris- 
parkle's  visits  are  as  frequent  as  he  can  make  them, 
but  he  Uves  in  distant  Rochester,  and  cannot  often  get 
to  town.  Mr.  Grewgious  is  not  far  off,  but  he  is  a  busy 
man  and  no  great  company.  Left  to  himself,  Neville's 
disposition  is  to  work  too  hard  and  long,  stay  in  all  day 
and  walk  only  at  night.  Meanwhile,  day  and  night, 
he  cannot  cease  to  dream  of  Rosa  or  put  her  image  from 
his  mind.  While  young  Drood  was  alive  he  pledged 
himself  to  do  so  and  achieved  a  measure  of  success. 
Now  he  cannot  cease  to  think  of  her.  At  last,  the  Minor 
Canon  being  in  London  for  a  couple  of  nights,  Neville 
plucks  up  enough  courage  to  beg  for  release  from  the 
pledge  he  gave  not  to  make  known  to  Rosa  his  love  for 
her.  He  has  kept  his  compact  faithfulty.  Its  cause 
has  gone  now.  Surely  he  may  be  released  ?  Reluc- 
tantly, since  it  cannot  be  withheld,  consent  is  given. 
But,  for  his  own  sake,  his  sister  and  the  Minor  Canon  view 
the  growth  of  his  resolve  to  tell  his  love  with  gravest 
apprehension.  Helena  knows  that  Rosa's  heart  is 
given  elsewhere,  and  fears  the  shock  to  Neville.  Added 
to  which  is  the  fear  of  Jasper's  jealous  rage  should 
Neville's  proposal  to  Rosa  reach  his  ears.  To  gain  a 
little  respite  Helena  makes  the  suggestion  that  she  and 
the  Minor  Canon — if  he  can  spare  the  time — shall  call 
on  Rosa  in  Bloomsbury  Square  this  afternoon.  It 
would  be  well  to  sound  Rosa  first,  and  ascertain  that 
she  would  not  be  likely  to  take  ill,  as  yet,  Neville's 
proposal,  seeing  how  short  a  time,  comparatively,  has 
passed  since  Eddy's  death — assuming  indeed  that  he  is 
dead.     To  which  Helena  adds  that  she  herself  wants  to 


EDWIN    DROOD  83 

see  Miss  Twinkleton  to  learn  the  arrangements  made  for 
their  journey  down  to  Rochester  to-morrow.  Neville 
yields  and  so  the  matter  remains  for  the  present  un- 
decided. Crisparkle  gladly  escorts  Helena  to  Blooms- 
bury  and  Neville  remains  alone.  While  they  are  away 
Rosa  suddenly  appears  to  Neville's  view  ^  to  his  amaze- 
ment and  delight,  entering  the  pretty  garden  down  below 
his  window.  In  Bloomsbury  Square  there  was  little  of 
comfort  or  dehght  on  that  hot  afternoon  in  early  autumn. 
Packing  and  plans  and  bickerings  between  Miss  Twink- 
leton and  the  ever  victorious,  ever  lugubrious  Billickin. 
Uncertaint}^  and  dust  and  grittiness  on  all  sides.  Rosa 
will  get  away  from  it  and  spend  the  afternoon  at  Staple 
Inn  she  thinks.  Now  that  Miss  Twinkleton  is  leaving, 
new  plans  are  to  be  made  for  Rosa.  What  more  natural 
than  that  she  should  call  on  her  guardian  to  learn  them 
from  him  ?  What  can  the  visit  have  to  do  with  Mr. 
Tartar  ?  He  is  not  now  at  Staple.  Does  not  Rosa 
knov,-  he  left  there  a  good  while  back  ?  Yes,  he  keeps 
his  chambers  on,  the  porter  thinks.  No,  he  can't  say 
where  he  is.  No,  nor  when  he  will  return.  So  Rosa 
visits  P.J.T.-i  to  find  that  her  guardian  is  not  in  at 
present.  Bazzard  is  there  but  he  is  not  communicative 
and  does  not  invite  Rosa  to  step  inside.  Rosa  tells 
him  she  will  await  Mr.  Grewgious'  return,  outside  in 
the  garden. 

3  Rosa  appears  to  Neville's  View.  A  visit  to  Staple  Inn  will  satisfy 
the  reader  that  this  would  be  so.  Neville's,  Tartar's  and  Grewgious' 
rooms  are  all  carefully  identified  by  Dickens. 

^  Rosa  Visits  P.J.T.  P.J.T.  means  "John  Thompson  Principal 
1797,"  but  it  needs  "no  matter-of-fact  identification  here."  For 
present  purposes  let  it  mean  "  Perhaps  John  Thomas  or  Perhaps  Joe 
Tyler,"  who  Possibly  Jabbered  Thus. 


84  THE    MURDER    OF 


Thus,  simply,  it  comes  about  that  Neville  looking 
aimlessly  out  of  his  window  sees  Rosa  tripping  down  the 
steps  of  Grewgious'  chambers  and  visiting  the  lovely 
little  garden  of  the  Inn,  where  the  dust-laden  air  is 
cooled  by  the  small  stream  of  the  spouting  fountain 
on  this  hot  afternoon  which  bees  are  rendering  drowsy. 

Neville  mil  go  down  to  her.  She  sits  beneath  a 
tree  upon  a  rustic  seat  with  room  for  two.  There 
Neville  joins  her.  She  tells  him  of  the  reason  of  her 
visit.  It  is  to  see  her  guardian.  He  is  out  at  present. 
She  must  await  his  return  to  learn  his  plans  for  her, 
as  she  expects  to  have  to  leave  London  to-morrow  or 
some  day  soon  she  knows  not  when.  To  go  ?  She 
knows  not  whither  nor  cares  a  great  deal.  No  !  cer- 
tainly not  to  Rochester  !  She  shudders  at  the  thought. 
Never  there  again  !  Neville  attributes  Rosa's  agitation 
to  the  Mystery  v/hich  has  blighted  both  their  hves. 
He  has  heard  nothing  ^  of  the  scene  in  that  other  garden 
with  Jasper  in  it.  They  have  kept  it  from  him.  He 
merely  knows  that  Jasper  has  spoken  to  Rosa  about 
himself,  and  has  disclosed  to  her  that  his  hatred  of  him 
endures  as  though  he  still  believed  him  guilty  of  the 
murder.  Nevihe  has  no  thought  of  Jasper  as  a  jealous 
rival.  He  does  not  guess  how  Rosa  fears  the  man  and 
shudders  at  her  recollection  of  him. 


^  He  has  heard  nothing  of  Jasper's  Proposal.  The  whole  story 
had  been  told  to  Helena  it  is  true,  but  "  I  suppose  "  pursued  Helena 
doubtfully  "  that  he  must  know  by  and  by  all  you  have  told  me  ;  but 
I  am  not  sure.  Ask  Mr.  Crisparkle's  advice  my  darhng.  Ask  him 
whether  I  may  tell  Neville  as  much  or  as  little  of  what  you  have  told 
me  as  I  think  best."  The  Minor  Canon  was  for  the  free  exercise  of 
Helena's  judgment. 


EDWIN    DROOD  85 

By  way  of  preface  to  what  he  is  come  down  to  say 
to  her,  Neville  alludes  sadly  to  the  tribulations  through 
which  they  have  passed — and  yet  must  pass — together. 
With  mournful  air  he  begs  her  forgiveness  for  his  share 
in  having  caused  her  sorrow,  especially  for  his  foohsh 
quarrel  with  Edwin.  She  would  stop  him  if  she  could 
but  what  can  she  do  or  say  ?  She  cannot  make  excuses 
and  go  ;  for  Neville  has  just  heard  from  her  own  lips  that 
she  awaits  her  guardian  there — if  only  he  would  come  ! 
She  cannot  refuse  to  hear  Neville,  or  surely  he  will 
suppose  himself  not  merely  not  forgiven,  but  even  not 
unsuspected  of  Eddy's  death.  Embarrassed  and 
apprehensive  of  what  next  he  is  about  to  say — for  she 
cannot  but  suspect  to  what  all  this  is  tending — she 
listens  to  the  impulsive  outburst  of  his  pleading,  looking 
away  from  him  and  nervously  toying  with  a  streamer 
from  her  summer  hat. 

She  answers  confusedly  that  he  would  have  her 
pardon  if  it  were  a  case  for  pardoning  and  adds  that  she 
never  has  suspected  him  of  anything  but  honest  and 
open  dealing  with  poor,  poor  Eddy.  Neville  at  these 
words  lets  his  hat  which  he  has  been  holding  in  his  hand 
fall  upon  the  ground  ^  and  going  on  one  knee,  seizes 
Rosa's  nearest  idle  hand  and  covers  it  with  kisses. 
His  passionate  nature  can  no  longer  bear  restraint, 
and  his  long  pent  feelings  declare  themselves  in  a  torrent 
of  ardent  tones  and  words.  His  love  is  more  than  half 
declared,  when  Rosa  snatches  back  her  hand,  starts 
from  the  seat,  and  in  a  low  and  strangled  voice  cries  look  ! 

6  Hai  upon  the  ground.     The  details  of  this  scene  are  taicen  from 
the  cover. 


86  THE    MURDER    OF 

look !  Neville  looks  and  sees  the  sailor  Tartar 
approaching  '  He  has  just  turned  in  under  the  archway 
closely  followed  by  Mr.  Grewgious.  Did  he  see  them  ? 
What  must  he  think  ?  What  shall  she  say  or  do  ? 
These  thronging  questions  are  driving  Rosa  half-dis- 
tracted. Tartar,  a  httle  distant  in  his  manner  perhaps, 
greets  Rosa  with  a  cool  "  good  afternoon,  Miss  Bud," 
raising  his  hat.  To  Neville,  Tartar  merely  says  "  I 
notice  Mr.  Landless  that  your  interest  in  flowers  is  not 
diminished."  Mr.  Grewgious  who,  with  his  short  sight, 
evidently  has  noticed  nothing,  invites  the  whole  party  to 
step  up  to  his  chambers.  But  Tartar,  raising  his  hat 
again,  begs  pardon  if  he  has  already  intruded  too  much 
on  Miss  Bud's  time  and  private  business  or  inconvenienced 
her  by  keeping  her  guardian  away  overlong.  While 
Neville  on  his  part  mutters  some  excuse  in  a  strangled 

7  Tartar  approaching  .  .  Jasper  was  standing  there.  Jasper  has 
come  to  town  pursuing  Neville  and  Datchery  pursuing  Jasper. 

Learning  from  Mrs.  Tope  that  Jasper  is  going  "  to  get  some 
medicine,"  in  town,  Datchery  divines  that  Jasper  will  visit  the  opium 
woman  during  the  night  and  lays  his  plans  accordingly.  First  he 
visits  her  himself  and  arranges  to  be  let  in  by  her  after  Jasper  is  asleep 
— but  before  he  begins  to  talk  if  possible.  Datchery  will  come  from  the 
docks  disguised  as  a  common  sailor.  This  settled,  Datchery  returns 
to  his  yacht  and  resumes  his  own  personality  as  Tartar.  Then  he  goes 
to  Furnival's  for  lunch,  and  there  meets  Grewgious,  and  is  returning 
with  him  to  his  chambers  to  report  progress  when  turning  in  under  the 
inner  arch  of  Staple,  he  sees  Neville  on  his  knees  to  Rosa.  Meanwhile 
Jasper  has  been  to  his  hotel  in  Aldersgate  and  then  either  by  chance 
or  by  arrangement  has  come  in  contact  with  the  clerk  Bazzard  in  Staple 
Inn,  from  whom  he  has  learnt  the  story  of  the  ring.  Jasper  is  still 
hanging  around  Staple  when  Rosa  arrives  and  he  sees  Neville  hastening 
down  to  greet  her.  From  the  landing  window  he  watches  the  whole 
scene  which  adds  fresh  fuel  to  his  rage  against  Neville  and  decides  him 
to  instant  action.  He  will  get  the  ring  at  once,  on  his  return,  and 
cause  it  to  be  found  in  Neville's  Chambers.  That  will  hang  him  if 
any  evidence  can  hang  a  man  thinks  Jasper. 


EDWIN    DROOD  87 

tone  and  hurries  off  without  his  hat  until  called  back 
to  be  handed  it  by  Mr.  Tartar  with  a  sweeping  bow. 
Mr.  Grewgious  seems  a  little  puzzled  by  the  turn  events 
have  taken,  b,ut  asks  Tartar  if  it  would  inconvenience 
him  too  much  to  look  in  later — say  ten  o'clock  to-morrow 
morning  ?  Mr.  Crisparkle  will,  he  hopes,  be  there. 
This  Tartar  promises  that  he  will  do  and  takes  his  leave. 
Rosa,  red  and  white  and  much  perturbed  wishes  a  hurried 
good-bye  to  him  and  Neville  and  precedes  her  guardian 
up  the  steps  into  his  chambers.  Rosa's  agitation  would 
have  been  much  increased  had  she  been  aware  of  yet 
another  spectator  of  Neville's  action.  This  spectator 
might  have  been  seen  from  Mr.  Grewgious'  first  floor 
window  to  take  the  form  of  a  slinking  individual,  standing 
at  the  second  floor  landing  window  of  the  second  house 
from  the  left  corner  of  the  Inn.  It  was  Jasper  standing 
there  7  watching  the  proposal  of  his  deadly-hated  rival 
to  his  beloved.  All  but  fainting  with  fury,  his  coun- 
tenance convulsed  and  purple,  clenched  teeth  and  staring 
eyes,  Jasper  stands  glowering  in  the  shadow  and  with  his 
empty  hands  claws  first  the  empty  air  then  seems  to 
throttle  someone.  An  evil  action  !  He  laughs  aloud 
when  Tartar  comes  upon  the  scene  and  breaks  it  up. 
First  watching  them  part,  Jasper  then  slinks  away 
himself  and  leaves  the  Inn, 


EPISODE   IX. 
THE  THIRD  DAWN. 


go  THE    MURDER    OF 


EPISODE    IX. 
THE    THIRD    DAWN. 

THE  scene  of  this  episode  is  familiar  to  you.  In  that 
meanest  and  closest  of  small  rooms  Eastward 
and  still  Eastward  of  Aldersgate  it  is  dark  as  yet. 
The  favourite  customer  is  there  already,  and  Hes  dressed 
and  drugged  across  the  large  unseemly  broken-down 
bed  groaning  beneath  the  weight  it  bears.  Listen  ! 
He  begins  to  mutter  !  The  tattered  hag  sets  her  face 
to  his  to  catch  his  mumbhngs.  Jasper  takes  no  heed 
of  her.  A  third  figure  hes  across  the  bed — a  maudhn 
sailor.  He  also  sprawls  and  shifts  about  and  draws 
up  close  to  the  talking  dreamer  throwing  a  tattooed 
arm  about  his  neck.  Removing  the  arm  violently 
from  him,  Jasper  rises  bolt  upright  into  a  sitting  posture. 
"  Loose  me "  he  shrieks.  Then  adds  more  calmly. 
"  The  noose  is  not  for  me  but  him,  see  !  Landless  ! 
there  !  "  and  points.  Falling  back  on  to  one  elbow  he 
goes  on  talking  in  a  low  but  forceful  tone.  "  At  last 
the  reaping.  He  is  mine — my  lawful  prey.  He  will 
not  break  this  net.  He  cannot.  The  bird  will  not 
escape  this  fowler.  The  snare  is  set  too  well.  He's 
mine.  The  clue  is  found.  The  clue  is  found.  The 
link.  The  ring.  It  must  still  be  there.  I  will  go  get 
it.  Now^ !  To-night.  It  did  not  come  back.  Bazzard 
is  certain.  Father  and  son  together."  The  sodden 
sailor  has  lain  quiet  all  this  while,  heedless  of  his  arm 


EDWIN    DROOD  91 

caught  under  the  body  of  Jasper  when  he  fell  back  on 
it.  Now,  at  the  name  of  Bazzard,  he  stirs  a  little  and 
moves  his  arm.  The  action  seems  to  waken  Jasper 
from  his  dream  and  stupor.  The  focus  of  his  eyes  is 
changed  from  far  to  near.  He  sees  the  room,  he  sees 
the  bed,  he  sees  the  sailor.  Furiously  he  turns  upon 
the  hostess  and  assails  her  in  language  suited  to  the 
sordid  den.  Translated,  he  asks  her  what  she  means 
by  letting  unmentionable  people  come  there  and  spy 
upon  him  ?  He  grasps  the  sailor  by  the  arm  and  asks 
him  who  the  blank  he  is  and  what  the  blank  he  wants 
there  ?  The  woman  shrinks  and  trembles  and  calls 
him  dearie  and  offers  him  another  pipe  of  comfort  and 
whines  she  can't  afford  to  shut  out  custom  with  trade 
so  slack  and  the  market  price  so  drefHe  high  just  now. 
But  the  sailor  is  in  a  different  humour,  and  slings 
his  tattooed  arm  round  Jasper's  neck  again  and  hugs 
and  kisses  him  !  Half  smothers  him  !  Not  less  furious 
now,  but  oddly  relieved,  Jasper  shakes  off  the  sailor, 
brushes  aside  the  woman  and  the  pipe  she  offers  him, 
and  struggling  to  the  window  looks  out  upon  the  breaking 
dawn.  The  woman  watches  him  with  furtive  glances. 
The  sailor  sings  a  sea-ditty  of  dubious  meaning  with 
voice  and  breath  that  speak  of  gin  as  much  as  opium. 
Clinging  to  the  crazy  curtains  Jasper  has  much  ado  to 
collect  his  scattered  normal  consciousness.  Having 
come  to  himself  earlier  than  is  his  wont,  he  has  not 
enjoyed  the  sequence  of  Kaleidoscopic  colours  and 
the  Eastern  Pageant.  By  a  mighty  effort  and  with  many 
a  shudder  he  succeeds  at  last  in  shaking  off  the  drowsiness 
upon  him  and  is  more  or  less  himself.     Still  furious  with 


92  THE    MURDER    OF 

the  woman  he  flings  her  money  roughly,  reaches  down 
his  hat  and  stamps  out  through  the  door  and  down  the 
creaking  stairs  with  no  good-morrow  given  to  the  rat- 
ridden  door-keeper  beneath  them.  Though  he  fre- 
quently looks  back,  as  if  expecting  it,  he  is  not  followed 
as  he  makes  his  way,  on  foot  first,  to  his  cheap  hotel 
in  Aldersgate,  and  then  by  train  to  Rochester. 

Meanwhile,  as  soon  as  the  stairs  have  ceased  to 
creak  to  Jasper's  tread,  the  sailor  quits  the  bed  and  asks 
the  hag  for  water.  Wlien  she  has  shambled  off  to  get 
him  some  the  sailor  sHps  off  an  upper  pair  of  seaman's 
trousers  worn  over  the  pantaloons  of  a  man  of  means 
if  not  of  fashion.  The  woman  returning  with  a  cracked 
jug  with  water  in  it  he  pours  some  in  the  basin  and  with 
the  assistance  of  a  piece  of  yellow  soap  and  vigorous 
rubbing  transforms  his  stained  and  made  up  face  and 
grubby  neck  and  hands  to  those  of  clean  and  sunburnt 
Tartar.  Next  he  rinses  out  his  mouth  and  gargles 
to  wash  away  the  taste  of  vilest  gin.  The  woman 
whines  to  him  it  was  as  potent  as  she  dared  to  make  it  to 
get  him  to  talk  at  all.  Wlio'd  ha  thought  he'd  wake 
like  that  before  he'd  scarce  begun  to  tell  them  anything  ? 
She  calls  Tartar  "  Sir,"  and  whines  she'll  do  better  with 
the  devil  next  time  when  she  gets  him  all  along  o'  her 
lone  self.  She'll  make  him  talk  then  !  She'll  make  him 
talk  dearie — sir,  she  means.  Bless  you  sir,  when  he 
first  came  here  he'd  lay  like  that  for  hours,  and  then 
when  it  was  later,  he'd  begin  to  sing  and  'd  keep  on 
singing  right  through  the  night. 

Tartar  seems  too  much  occupied  in  getting  the  look 
and  smell  and  taste  and  atmosphere  of  the  place  out  of 


EDWIN    DROOD  93 

his  eyes  and  nose  and  mouth  and  mind,  to  pay  much 
heed  to  what  the  woman  says  to  him.  But  to  her  great 
reUef  he  does  not  appear  annoyed  with  her  or  so  dis- 
appointed as  she  expected  him  to  show  himself.  It 
does  not  seem  as  if  he  had  found  his  martyrdom  as 
wasted,  quite,  as  she  supposes  it  to  be.  Giving  the 
woman  money — more  than  the  price  of  the  smokes  he 
has  not  had,  Tartar  arranges  to  let  her  know  when  next 
he  needs  her  help  and  nodding  to  her,  speeds  down 
the  stairs  with  spirits  rising  with  the  morning  and  with 
the  prospect  of  a  busy  day  ahead. 

First  he  makes  for  his  chambers  in  Staple  Inn,  there 
to  snatch  a  little  sleep  and  have  a  bath  and  shave  and 
breakfast.  After  that,  at  ten  o'clock,  he  will  go  round 
to  Grewgious'  chambers,  as  arranged,  to  confer  with 
him  and  Crisparkle. 

On  second  thoughts,  Tartar  changes  his  programme 
slightly.  Bazzard,  it  seems,  is  spjdng  on  them  and  may 
report  the  conference  to  Jasper.  So  ten  o'clock  finds 
Tartar  smoking  his  after  breakfast  pipe  on  the  seat  that 
circles  the  centre  tree  of  the  front  court  clump  watching 
for  the  Minor  Canon  to  come  in  under  the  entrance 
arch  from  Holborn.  Before  his  pipe  is  finished  Cris- 
parkle comes  briskly  in.  Tartar  greets  him  and  then 
diverts  him  from  his  plan  of  going  at  once  to  Grewgious' 
chambers  and  carries  him  up  instead  to  his  own.  He 
does  not  detain  him  long  there.  Just  long  enough  to 
explain  about  Bazzard  and  to  arrange  for  the  Minor 
Canon  to  go  alone  to  the  conference  with  Mr.  Grewgious 
and  to  invite  the  latter,  in  Bazzard's  hearing,  to  meet 
"  an   old   schoolfellow   of   his   at    an    early   dinner   at 


94  THE    MURDER    OF 

Furnivals."       There   the  real  plan  of  action   can  be 
formulated  between  them  without  fear  of  spying. 

It  is  not  necessary  for  us  to  follow  in  detail  the 
intervening  period.  At  Furnivals  the  three  meet  as 
arranged,  and  a  rather  long  discussion  between  them 
produces  a  summary  of  the  present  position  and  the 
future  plans  somewhat  to  this  effect : — All  were  now 
agreed  that  Edwin  was  dead,  and  that  Jasper  was  his 
murderer.  Clearly  the  motive  was  jealousy  and  love 
of  Rosa.  Mr.  Grewgious  disclosed  the  evidence  he  had 
on  this  point.  There  was  Jasper's  strange  "  God  save 
them  both."  There  was  his  white-lipped  anxiety  to 
learn  whether  Grewgious  had  been  sent  for  to  hear  that 
the  engagement  was  broken  off.  There  was  his  recep- 
tion of  the  news  of  the  utter  needlessness  of  the  murder 
for  its  object  after  he  had  committed  it.  Last  and  most 
conclusive  of  all  there  was  his  mad  confession  when 
making  love  to  Rosa,  Mr.  Crisparkle,  too,  recalled 
Jasper's  dehrious  cry  "  What  is  the  matter  ?  "  "  Who 
did  it  ?  "  when  he  disturbed  him  sleeping.  Tartar 
added  what  he  had  been  able  to  gather  from  the  frag- 
ments overheard  by  the  opium  woman  threatening 
danger  to  "  Ned,"  and  plainly  disclosing  Jasper's  wild 
love  for  the  threatened  young  man's  sweetheart.  Granted 
the  murder,  it  must  have  been  accomplished  between 
the  time  of  Neville's  good-night  to  Edwin,  and  the  time 
next  morning  when  Jasper  came  shouting  for  his  nephew. 
Mr.  Crisparkle  suggested  that  Jasper  had  somehow 
induced  Edwin  to  go  with  him  down  to  the  river  and 
there  had  drowned  him. 

But  Tartar  had   another   theory.     He  had   lately 


EDWIN    DROOD  95 

improved  his  acquaintance  with  Durdles  the  Stone- 
mason. Aided  by  a  large  bottle  of  spirits,  he  had 
managed  to  extract  from  him  in  the  course  of  several 
conversations  a  disjointed  account  of  his  joumeyings 
with  Jasper  including  in  particular  the  unaccountable 
expedition  on  the  Monday  before  the  crime.  Durdles' 
description  was  confused  and  blurred  and  puzzling  to 
a  degree,  but  these  salient  facts  stood  out  from  it. 
(i)  That  even  before  the  murder — on  this  Monday — 
Neville  was  threatened  by  Jasper.  Tartar's  resum^  of 
what  took  place  behind  the  fragment  of  wall  of  Minor 
Canon  Comer,  was  supplemented  by  Mr.  Crisparkle's 
recollection  of  what  took  place  in  front  of  it.  Neither 
the  Minor  Canon  nor  Neville  had  any  suspicion  of  being 
watched  that  night.  (2)  That  Jasper  showed  a  quite 
inexphcable  interest  in  the  keys  that  Durdles  carried ; 
especially  it  would  seem  in  the  key  tied  up  in  Durdles' 
bundle  which  opened  Mrs.  Sapsea's  tomb. 

(3)  That  Jasper  had  deliberately  got  Durdles  drunk 
and  had  then  left  him  locked  up  in  the  crypt  while  he 
himself  was  somewhere  outside  the  Cathedral.  This 
fact  was  not  reaUsed  by  Durdles  himself,  but  Tartar  was 
sure  of  it.  His  confidence  was  based  on  a  singular 
fact  derived  from  Deputy — the  Imp.  Deputy  had 
seen  Jasper  entering  the  crypt  that  Monday  night,  alone, 
less  than  an  hour  before  the  time  he  earned  the  enmity 
of  the  Imp  by  "  a-histing  him  off  his  legs,"  and  nearly 
choking  him.  Durdles  too  remembered  being  shaken 
in  his  sleep  and  "  dropping  "  the  crypt  key.  Durdles 
also  noticed  that  his  bundle  in  which  he  carried  the 
Sapsea  key  was  not  tied  as  he  himself  always  tied  it. 


96  THE    MURDER    OF 

Mr.  Crisparkle,  at  this  point,  suggested  an  immediate 
search  of  the  Sapsea  tomb  in  the  expectation  of  finding 
Edwin's  body  in  it.  But  Tartar  went  on  to  explain 
that  he  had  taken  the  hberty  of  borrowing  Durdles' 
key  without  his  knowledge  and  had  searched  the  tomb 
himself  already,  but  to  his  own  intense  surprise  had 
found  nothing  at  all  unusual  within  it—"  except," 
he  said  "  a  very  small  trace  of  hme  left  lying  there." 
Mr.  Grewgious  here  interposed  that  he  was  afraid  that 
they  were  going  to  find  themselves  up  against  a  most 
serious  legal  difficulty.  Satisfied  as  they  were — satisfied 
as  any  jury  might  be — that  the  boy  was  murdered  and 
murdered  by  Jasper,  yet  no  judge  would  allow  a  jury 
to  convict  unless  some  part  at  least  of  the  body  could 
be  found,  to  prove  the  death.  It  looked  to  him  as  if 
in  this  case  the  body  had  been  successfully  and  entirely 
destroyed  or  got  rid  of. 

Here  again  Mr.  Tartar  had  clues  and  suggestions 
which  he  thought  might  help  them.  Mr.  Grewgious 
was  of  course  aware  from  Mr.  Crisparkle  of  the  painful 
disclosure  that  Jasper  had  made  that  morning  from 
which  it  appeared  that  Mr.  Grewgious'  confidential  clerk 
Bazzard  had  betrayed  his  employer.  There  could  be 
no  doubt  that  Bazzard  was  secretty  communicating 
with  Jasper  about  the  mystery.  Mr.  Grewgious  had 
not,  by  chance,  commissioned  Bazzard  to  do  this  for 
the  sake  of  securing  evidence  had  he  ?  No  !  emphatic- 
ally .  Mr.  Grewgious  had  not  done  that.  Could 
Mr.  Grewgious  throw  hght  at  all  on  Jasper's  refer- 
ence to  Bazzard  ?  The  words  were — "  the  clue  is 
found.      The    Unk.      The    ring.      I    will    go    get    it. 


EDWIN    DROOD  97 

Now !  to-night !  It  did  not  come  back.  Bazzard  is 
certain." 

"  Yes."  Mr.  Grewgious  thought  he  knew  exactly 
what  was  meant.  A  ring  of  diamonds  and  rubies  in  a 
gold  setting  which  had  belonged  to  Miss  Rosa's  mother 
was  entrusted  to  him  by  Miss  Rosa's  father  to  give  to 
Mr.  Edwin,  her  betrothed,  to  be  their  engagement 
ring  if  they  married.  This  ring  Mr.  Grewgious  had 
handed  to  Edwin  for  that  purpose  in  the  presence  of 
Bazzard.  When  handing  the  ring  to  him  Mr.  Grewgious 
had  thought  it  right  to  charge  Edwin  very  solemnly 
that  if  anything  were  at  all  amiss  between  him  and  Miss 
Rosa  instead  of  giving  the  ring  to  her,  he  should  bring 
it  back  to  Mr.  Grewgious.  Bazzard,  Mr.  Grewgious 
beheved,  was  sleeping  while  this  solemn  injunction  to 
bring  the  ring  back  was  laid  upon  Edwin,  but  the  clerk 
had  wakened  immediately  afterwards  and  at  Mr.  Grew- 
gious' request  had  formally  witnessed  the  transaction. 
Mr.  Grewgious  had  since  ascertained  that  the  ring  had 
not  been  given  to  Miss  Rosa  or  even  mentioned  to  her  ; 
nor  had  it  been  returned  to  Mr.  Grewgious. 

Mr.  Tartar  was  clear,  after  what  Mr.  Grewgious 
had  told  them,  that  Bazzard  had  revealed  to  Jasper 
about  the  ring,  its  gift  to  Edwin  and  its  non-return. 

Mr.  Crisparkle  now  asked  how  it  was  that  the  ring 
was  not  with  the  watch  and  pin  which  he  had  found  at 
Cloisterham  Weir,  and  what  interpretation  could  be 
put  upon  the  rest  of  Jasper's  ravings  ?  With  regard 
to  the  Weir,  Tartar  put  a  few  questions  to  Mr.  Crisparkle 
which  at  once  brought  out  that  he  frequently  visited  the 
Weir  for  bathing.     This  made  it  not  unreasonable  to 


98  THE    MURDER    OF 

suppose  that  the  jewellery  had  been  left  there  by  Jasper 
for  the  express  purpose  of  its  being  found  by  the  Minor 
Canon.  The  ring,  on  the  other  hand  was,  it  seemed, 
unknown  to  Jasper  and  might  not  have  been  discovered 
by  him  when  he  took  the  watch  and  pin  from  the  body. 
Had  Mr.  Grewgious  communicated  the  trust  on  which 
he  held  the  ring  to  Jasper  ?  No.  It  was  mentioned 
in  the  will  of  Mr.  Bud,  but  so  far  as  Mr.  Grewgious  was 
aware,  Jasper  had  never  seen  this  will.  An  attested 
copy  of  it  had  been  sent  to  Rosa,  and  another  to  Edwin, 
but  none  to  Jasper.  "  Then,"  said  Mr.  Tartar  "  it 
seems  that  Jasper  knew  of  the  rest  of  the  jewellery  and 
removed  it,  but  did  not  know  of  this  ring  till  yesterday. 
"It  must  still  lie  there."  What  can  this  mean  except 
that  the  ring  must  still  lie  where  the  body  was  left  ? 
If  that  be  so  Jasper  intends  to  visit  the  spot  at  once — 
to-night  it  may  be — to  secure  the  ring.  He  must  be 
followed.     I  will  follow  him. 

Mr.  Tartar  then  appealed  to  the  lawyer  to  know 
whether,  supposing  Jasper  caught  in  the  act  of  bearing 
away  a  ring  which  Mr.  Grewgious  could  identify  as  the 
ring  he  had  given  to  the  lad  who  had  so  mysteriously 
disappeared  and  bearing  it  away  at  night  from  a  place 
which  was  found  to  contain  some  trace  of  human  remains 
these  facts  coupled  with  circumstantial  evidence  of  guilt, 
of  motive  and  of  opportunity  might  not  be  sufficient  to 
overcome  the  legal  difficulty  arising  from  the  absence  of 
the  body  of  the  vanished  lad  ?  Would  not  the  case  be 
allowed  to  go  to  a  jury  if  these  facts  could  be  proved  ? 
*'  Yes,"  Mr.  Grewgious  thought  in  those  circumstances 
that  the  Judge  might  not  feel  bound  to  direct  acquittal. 


EDWIN    DROOD  99 

He  was  not  certain  but  he  thought  so.  In  the 
circumstances  of  this  case  the  ring  would  form  very 
strong  evidence  of  identity. 

Mr.  Crisparkle  next  called  attention  to  those  other 
words  which  Jasper  used.  Who  was  "  the  lawful 
prey  ?  "  Mr.  Grewgious  gravely  feared  it  must  mean 
Neville.  It  looked  to  him  as  if  Jasper  hoped  to  use  the 
ring  to  assist  him  in  bringing  a  charge  of  murder  against 
Neville.  Mr.  Tartar  had  indeed  rendered  them  a  service 
by  adventuring  himself  into  this  fearful  den  and  learning 
what  he  had  told  them. 

Tartar  beheves  that  the  whole  of  Jasper's  raving  is 
now  understood  except  the  last  ejaculation  "  Father 
and  Son."  There  seems  to  be  no  context  to  throw 
Ught  on  that.  Besides  he  cannot  be  quite  positive 
that  he  heard  the  words  aright.  His  movement  of 
surprise  on  hearing  Bazzard  named  had  interrupted 
Jasper.  A  pity  that.  Otherwise  he  might  have  heard 
something  really  conclusive.  However,  they  must 
act  on  the  materials  they  had  at  present  and  hope  that 
their  inferences  are  the  right  ones.  It  would  assist 
Mr.  Tartar  to  make  his  own  plans  if  he  might  be  told 
those  of  the  others  for  to-night  and  to-morrow  ?  By 
all  means.  The  Minor  Canon  travels  down  to  Rochester 
this  afternoon  with  Miss  Landless  and  Miss  Twinkleton 
who  has  been  chaperoning  Miss  Rosa  in  London  as  Mr. 
Tartar  no  doubt  knows.  And  Mr.  Landless  and  Miss 
Bud  ?  asks  Tartar.  Neville  will  remain  in  his  chambers 
here  and  Miss  Bud  is  to  spend  the  next  few  days  at 
Fumivals  while  arrangements  are  being  concluded  for 
her  future  residence  by  Mr.  Grewgious.     "  I  see,"  says 


100  THE    MURDER    OF 

Mr.  Tartar.  "  Well,  I  was  proposing  to  sail  my  yacht 
to  Gravesend  this  afternoon,  as  the  wind  serves,  and  then 
to  take  a  coach  and  chaise  to  Rochester.  Would  it 
not  be  well  if  Mr.  Landless  came  with  me  ?  The  sea 
air  will  do  him  no  harm,  and  with  his  local  knowledge 
and  having  been  the  last  person  to  see  young  Drood 
alive  he  may  be  able  to  give  me  great  assistance  in 
Rochester.  He  need  not  fear  recognition  for  it  will 
be  quite  dark  by  the  time  we  arrive,  and  he,  Lobley  and 
I  will  go  straight  to  my  rooms  where  he  will  meet  no 
one  else."  Mr.  Crisparkle  undertakes  to  make  this 
suggestion  to  NeviUe,  but  doubts  if  he  will  feel  incHned 
to  fall  in  with  it  as  he  is  very  loth  to  be  seen  in  Rochester 
after  what  has  happened.  Mr.  Grewgious  remarks  that 
he  thinks  it  Landlesses'  duty  to  go  if  there  is  any 
possibility  of  his  being  of  assistance  to  Mr.  Tartar  by 
going. 

Before  the  luncheon  party  breaks  up  it  is  arranged 
that  Mr.  Crisparkle  shall  at  once  go  openly  to  visit 
Neville  while  Mr.  Tartar,  after  a  short  interval,  shall 
return  to  his  own  chambers  and  then  join  Mr.  Crisparkle 
and  the  Landlesses  by  climbing  out  of  his  own  window 
and  in  at  theirs.  The  only  task  of  Mr.  Grewgious  for 
the  present  will  be  to  arrange  for  Rosa's  future  and  to 
keep  a  watch  on  Bazzard. 

The  scheme  is  carried  out.  The  whole  story  is 
laid  before  Helena  and  Neville  and  the  plans  made 
clear  to  them.  Neville  surprises  the  Minor  Canon  by 
seeming  almost  glad  to  leave  Staple  Inn  for  a  while  in 
spite  of  Rosa  being  at  Furnivals.  He  seems  depressed 
and  dispirited  but  as  Tartar's  story  proceeds,   grows 


EDWIN    DROOD  loi 

furious  against  Jasper  and  more  than  once  gives  way  to 
that  motion  of  clenching  his  right  hand  which  Mr. 
Crisparkle  dishkes  so  much.  As  a  concession  to  Neville's 
not  unnatural  dread  of  being  seen  and  recognised  in 
Rochester,  Tartar  undertakes  to  supply  a  disguise  for 
him  and  it  is  arranged  that  Helena  shall  take  down 
with  her  an  outfit  of  her  brother's  usual  clothing.  Rosa, 
it  is  decided  need  not  be  told  the  plans  at  present.  They 
hope  to  have  something  more  definite  to  tell  her  by 
to-morrow. 

Having  now  completed  our  summary  of  the  dawn's 
disclosures,  and  the  day's  discussions,  we  will  adjourn 
the  scene  from  Staple  Inn  to  Rochester,  where  all  the 
party  now  in  Neville's  room  are  to  meet  again  before 
the  next  day  dawns. 


EPISODE  X. 
HELENA'S  PART. 


104  THE    MURDER    OF 


EPISODE    X. 
HELENA'S    PART. 

AN  unusually  handsome  lithe  young  fellow  and  an 
unusually  handsome  lithe  girl ;  much  alike ; 
both  very  dark  and  very  rich  in  colour ;  she 
of  almost  the  gypsy  type  ;  something  untamed  about 
them  both  ;  a  certain  air  upon  them  of  hunter  and 
huntress  ;  yet  withal  a  certain  air  of  being  the  objects 
of  the  chase  rather  than  the  followers.  Slender,  supple, 
quick  of  eye  and  limb  ;  half  shy,  half  defiant ;  fierce 
of  look,  an  indefinable  kind  of  pause  coming  and  going 
on  their  whole  expression,  both  of  face  and  form,  which 
might  be  equally  likened  to  the  pause  before  a  crouch 
or  a  bound.  The  rough  mental  notes  made  in  the  first 
five  minutes  of  his  acquaintance  with  them  by  Mr. 
Crisparkle  would  have  read  thus  verbatim.  Neville's 
own  short  history  of  himself  and  his  sister  was  as  follows  : 
"  We  come  (my  sister  and  I),  from  Ceylon.  We  are  twin 
children.  Our  mother  died  there  when  we  were  Httle. 
We  lived  with  a  stepfather  and  have  had  a  wretched 
existence.  He  was  a  miserly  wretch  who  grudged  us 
food  to  eat  and  clothes  to  wear  and  a  cruel  brute  who 
beat  my  sister  more  than  once  or  twice.  My  sister 
would  have  let  him  tear  her  to  pieces  before  she  would 
have  let  him  believe  that  he  could  make  her  shed  a  tear. 
Nothing  in  our  misery  ever  subdued  her,  though  it 
often  cowed  me.     When  we  ran  away  from  it  (we  ran 


EDWIN    DROOD  y  105 

away  four  times  in  six  years  to  be  soon  brought  back 
and  cruelly  punished),  the  flight  was  always  of  her 
planning  and  leading.  Each  time  she  dressed  as  a  boy 
and  showed  the  bearing  of  a  man.  I  remember  when 
I  lost  the  pocket-knife  with  which  she  was  to  have 
cut  her  hair  short  how  desperately  she  tried  to  tear  it 
out  or  bite  it  off.''  A  girl  of  remarkable  character  this 
Helena.  True  twin  to  her  brother  but  without  his 
imperfections  and  weaknesses  of  character.  Rapid  of 
thought  and  action  it  is  she,  first,  who  comes  to  Rosa's 
rescue  at  the  piano.  Quick  of  eye  she  alone  first  fathomed 
Jasper's  secret  love  for  Rosa  and  Rosa's  fear  and  detes- 
tation of  him.  Bold  of  speech  she  endorses  Edwin's 
conventional  remark  that  Rosa's  music  master  has  made 
her  afraid  of  him  and  her  endorsement  gives  it  meaning. 
Bolder  still  she  says  outright  that  she  herself  would  not 
fear  Jasper  under  any  circumstances.  How  little  then 
she  thought  under  what  circumstances  of  terror  she  was 
to  prove  her  courageous  fearlessness  of  him  !  But  there 
was  a  slumbering  gleam  of  fire  in  the  intense  dark  eyes 
that  night  when  in  the  privacy  of  their  own  room  she 
took  the  frightened  Rosa  under  her  strong  protection. 
Let  whomsoever  it  might  concern  look  well  to  it ! 

Jasper  has  cause  to  be  apprehensive  of  fierce  Helena, 
not  alone  as  protectress  of  Rosa,  but  also  as  protectress 
and  avenger  of  her  brother.  She  notices  what  others 
do  not  see."  Oh,  Mr.  Crisparkle,"  she  asks  "  would  you 
have  Neville  throw  himself  at  young  Drood's  feet  or  at 
Mr.  Jasper's,  who  maligns  him  every  day  ?  "  After  the 
disappearance,  Jasper  shews  that  he  is,  in  truth,  a  trifle 
apprehensive   of  Helena  by  his  question  to  Grewgious 


io6  THE    MURDER    OF 

"  Have  you  seen  " — not  Neville,  but — "  his  sister  ?  " 
to  learn  in  answer  that  she  is  defiant  of  all  suspicion  and 
has  unbounded  faith  in  her  brother.  Her  sustained 
confidence  in  Neville  and  the  truth  is  such  that  after 
Neville  himself  is  cowed  and  broken  by  the  better  sort 
of  people  averting  their  eyes  and  silently  giving  him 
too  much  room  to  pass  when  he  meets  them  in  the  streets 
of  Rochester,  Helena  passes  along  those  self  same 
streets  boldly  and  as  high  in  the  general  respect  as  any 
one  who  treads  them.  She  proves  herself  a  truly  brave 
woman  whom  nothing  can  subdue.  Nothing !  To 
meet  a  man  whom  you  know  to  be  a  murderer  and  to 
meet  him  unarmed  and  alone  requires  great  courage. 
To  meet  him  at  night  more  courage.  But  to  meet  him 
alone,  unarmed,  at  dead  of  night,  in  the  tomb  of  his 
murdered  victim  and  to  be  yourself  dressed  hke  the 
victim  is  to  meet  him  under  circumstances  bound 
(one  would  think),  to  be  terrifying  to  anyone — let  alone 
an  unprotected  girl.  Under  these  circumstances  of 
terror  Helena  meets  Jasper  and  is  undaunted.  She 
stands  alone  in  the  tomb  awaiting  him.  Her  role  is 
Edwdn  Drood.  Wearing  her  brother's  clothes  she 
hopes  in  the  darkness  of  the  tomb  to  seem^  to  Jasper  a 
second  Edwin. 

What  can  have  brought  this  pair  of  enemies  at  this 
strange  hour  in  this  strange  guise  to  this  strange  place  ? 
What  is  Jasper  seeking  here  ?  Why  does  Helena  await 
him  thus  ? 

"  Father  and  Son."  Those  words  had  baffled 
Tartar  and  the  rest.  Turning  them  over  and  over  in 
her  mind  as  she  travelled  down  to  Rochester,  Helena 


EDWIN    DROOD  107 

had  hit  upon  their  meaning.  Edwin  was  the  son.  Had 
Edwin's  parents  long  been  dead  before  his  disappearance, 
she  asks  the  Minor  Canon  ?  Mr.  Crisparkle  answered 
that  he  had  never  known  Edwin's  mother.  His  father 
died  some  years  before  him  and  was  buried  at  Rochester. 
"  Father  and  son  together  !  "  Helena  sees  it  in  a  flash  ! 
Her  first  inclination  is  to  tell  the  Minor  Canon  her  sus- 
picions and  to  have  the  grave  of  the  elder  Drood  ex- 
amined. But  then  it  occurs  to  her  that  even  if  they  do 
discover  the  body  of  Edwin  in  that  tomb  and  the  ring 
as  well,  still  they  will  have  no  proof  that  Jasper  was  the 
murderer.  The  wretch  may  even  maintain  his  threat 
to  Neville.  Should  Jasper  be  caught  there  visiting  the 
spot  might  he  not  (in  a  Court  of  Law)  evade  the  inference 
that  would  hang  him  ?  Suppose  he  boldly  asserted  that 
he  came  there  seeking  evidence — as  a  detective  ?  It 
is  well  known  that  he  pretends  to  be  tracking  down  the 
murderer.  Nothing  but  a  full  confession,  Helena  thinks, 
will  really  hang  him  or  save  her  brother.  Led  by  her 
reasoning  to  this  difficult  conclusion,  Helena  is  non- 
plussed at  first.  At  last  she  has  it !  Supernatural 
dread  may  extort  from  the  villain's  conscience  a  con- 
fession. In  her  troubled  childhood,  more  than  once, 
Helena  has  dressed  herself  in  her  brother's  clothing.  She 
will  do  so  again  and  in  the  darkness  of  the  tomb,  and  the 
guiltiness  of  Jasper's  conscience,  she  will  seem  to  him 
like  the  murdered  Edwin.  The  plan  once  formed, 
nothing  will  turn  Helena  from  it.  She  knows  full  well, 
however,  that  on  no  account  would  the  Minor  Canon 
allow  it,  therefore,  saying  nothing  to  him  of  her  resolve, 
she  acts  alone  and  secretly. 


EPISODE  XL 
FLIGHT  AND  PURSUIT. 


no  THE    MURDER    OF 

EPISODE    XL 
FLIGHT  AND  PURSUIT. 

MIDNIGHT  is  echoing  under  Jasper's  vaulted 
gateway.  The  postern  door  opens.  Cau- 
tiously Jasper  himself  comes  out.  He  glances 
round  him  suspiciously,  but  all  is  silent  in  the  High 
Street  and  the  Cathedral  Precincts  are  empty.  Has- 
tening to  the  churchyard  with  quick  but  stealthy  tread, 
he  unlocks  the  Drood  sarcophagus,  and,  once  within  it, 
shuts  the  door  and  lights  his  lantern.  Stepping  through 
an  unlocked  inner  door  holding  the  lantern  high  above 
his  head,  its  feeble  rays  fall  sharply  on  the  slim  and 
youthful  figure  of  a  man.  This  can't  be  real !  Jasper 
must  be  dreaming.  Edwin  come  to  life  !  Is  it  a 
ghost  that  stands  before  him  motionless  and  silent 
its  left  hand  in  the  breast  of  the  long  top  coat  as  if 
seeking  some  object  in  the  pocket  ?  A  ghost — pshaw  ! 
A  mental  fancy.  Suddenly  the  hand  shoots  out  holding 
in  its  palm  a  ring !  The  action  betrays  the  figure  and 
Jasper  now  knows  it  for  no  fancy  and  no  ghost.  Glaring 
along  the  feeble  candle  rays  he  thinks  he  knows  the  face 
and  figure — yes  and  the  clothing  !  Neville  Landless  ! 
Jasper  your  chance  is  come.  Your  enemy  is  deUvered 
into  the  grip  of  your  strong  fingers.  The  lamp  is 
shattered  in  the  first  fierce  onset,  and  the  struggle  goes 
on  in  darkness  and  in  silence  save  for  the  gasps  for 
breath   and   cracking   joints   and   shuffling   feet.     The 


EDWIN    DROOD  iii 

outcome  of  it  all  is  obvious  from  the  start.  With  the 
last  choking  breath  a  feeble  cry  escapes  the  victim. 
A  female  cry,  the  voice  of  a  woman  !  Relaxing,  too 
late,  his  iron  grip  Jasper  learns  the  truth.  His  second 
victim  is  a  woman.  Neville  lives  still  to  be  the  avenger 
of  his  murdered  sister.  The  limp  body  of  the  murdered 
girl  collapses  to  the  floor  while  Jasper  dazed  and  reeling 
gropes  in  the  darkness  for  the  outer  door  and  stumbles 
forth  from  the  tomb  into  the  night  air — straight  into  the 
arms  of  Neville  Landless. 

This  new  situation  requires  a  word  of  explanation. 
When  Jasper  issued  from  his  gatehouse  door  at  mid- 
night, and  looked  around  suspiciously  for  watchers, 
he  little  thought  how  near  they  were  to  him.  No  light 
shone  through  the  ground  floor  window  of  Mr.  Dat- 
chery's  lodging,  but  there  he  sat  behind  the  darkened 
window  still  guarding  the  archway  door  hke  a  cat  guards 
mousehole.  With  him  are  Landless  and  Lobley,  silently 
awaiting  his  signal.  The  signal  is  given  as  soon  as  Jasper 
has  gone  on  towards  the  Cathedral,  and  the  three  con- 
spirators come  out  and  follow  him.  Triumphant  they 
mark  him  select  and  enter  the  Drood  sarcophagus  and 
close  the  door.  Unknown  to  one  another,  the  Precincts 
were  alive  that  night  with  many  hiding  figures.  We 
have  seen  Helena  inside  the  tomb  awaiting  Jasper. 
Behind  the  North  door  of  the  crypt  Crisparkle  and 
Durdles  lie  in  hiding.  The  Imp  too,  we  may  be  sure, 
is  lurking  somewhere  near.  But  to  return  to  the  three  con- 
spirators awaiting  Jasper's  exit  from  the  tomb,  all  unsus- 
pecting of  the  tragic  struggle  going  on  within  it.  They 
hope  to  arrest  him  with  the  ring  upon  him  issuing  from 


112  THE    MURDER    OF 

the  unsuspected  hiding  place  of  Edwin's  body.  They 
anticipate  a  stealthy  hurried  exit.  Instead  of  which 
Jasper  bursts  upon  them  heedless  of  anything,  and  in  a 
state  approaching  frenzy.  As  Neville,  who  is  nearest, 
seizes  him,  he  does  not  struggle,  but  shouts  aloud  "  her 
brother,"  in  a  voice  of  terror.  "  She  is  dead,  dead,  dead. 
In  there,"  .  .  .  and  points.  Without  a  syllable 
in  answer,  Neville  loosing  Jasper  hurries  within  the  open 
tomb.  Datchery  follows  him  and  Lobley.  Jasper 
makes  no  move,  attempts  no  escape  but  does  not  enter. 
They  carry  Helena  forth  and  lay  her  body  down  outside. 
Then  with  a  dire  and  bitter  cry  for  vengence  Neville 
springs  at  Jasper  who  turns  and  flees,  his  undirected 
steps  carrying  him  among  the  graves  towards  the 
Cathedral.  Brought  forth  by  the  cry,  Durdles  and 
Crisparkle  issue  from  the  crypt  and  join  in  the  pursuit 
of  Jasper.  Doubling  back  Jasper  darts  in  at  the  crypt 
door  left  open  and  up  the  Great  Tower's  winding  stair- 
case. Up  and  up  the  twisting  stairs  ^  two  steps  at  a 
time  close  after  Jasper  comes  Neville  ;  then  Datchery, 
Lobley,  Crisparkle  2  and  heavy  Durdles  last.  Anon  they 
turn  into  narrower  and  steeper  staircases  and  the  night 
air  begins  to  blow  upon  them  and  frightened  rooks  fly 
out   and   wheel   around.     When   they   gain   the   open, 

1  up    the     Twisting    Stairs.     See    the   note   upon    the   cover. 
{Appendix  V). 

2  Datchery,  Lobley,  Crisparkle.  This  is  my  reading  of  the  cover. 
The  top  figure  has  Datchery's  wig  and  Tartar's  agility  ;  the  bottom  one 
has  clothes  of  a  clerical  cut  ;  the  centre  one  has  a  lot  of  hair  and  ill- 
suits  any  of  the  better-known  characters  ;  there  is  nothing  inconsis- 
tent, however,  with  his  being  "  the  dead  image  of  the  sun  in  old  wood- 
cuts, his  hair  and  whiskers  answering  for  rays  all  round  him,"  or  "  a 
jolly  favoured  man  with  tawny  hair  and  whiskers." 


EDWIN    DROOD  113 

top  Neville  the  hunter  is  hard  on  Jasper.  As  stag  at 
bay  turns  on  the  hounds,  Jasper  turns  on  Neville.  The 
roles  are  now  reversed,  and  the  pursued  hunts  his 
pursuer  round  the  narrow  passage  at  the  Tower  top  ; 
but  not  for  long. 

Exhausted,  Neville  stumbles,  a  push  from  Jasper 
and — look  down,  look  down,  you  see  what  lies  at  the 
bottom  there  !  The  appalling  death  yell  rings  in  the 
ears  of  the  fellow  huntsmen  as  they  too  reach  the  fresh 
night  air.  Was  it  Jasper  ?  Fear  tells  their  hearts 
it  was  not.  Left  alone  upon  the  tower  top,  the  murderer 
is  nerved  by  desperation  to  a  feat  else  never  attempted. 
No  less  than  to  seek  escape  by  climbing  down  the  tower 
side  to  gain  the  leads  over  the  cathedral  roofing.  Tartar 
gains  the  open  top  only  to  find  it  empty.  Lobley  next 
joins  him  there,  then  Crisparkle.  The  rim  of  moon 
that  is  yet  to  come,  has  not  risen.  They  can  make  out 
nothing.  All  three  listen.  Yes !  The  scrambling 
sounds,  the  labouring  breath,  the  falling  pieces,  must 
mean  that.  Someone  is  climbing  in  the  darkness  down 
the  tower  face.  Appalled  they  look  towards  one  another. 
The  cry  was  Neville's.  This  scrambling  maniac  is  a 
triple  murderer.  Crisparkle  is  prostrated  by  the 
tragedies.  Tartar,  accustomed  to  emergencies  takes 
command.  Lobley  he  despatches  for  two  bell-ropes 
from  the  belfry.  Durdles  he  sends  back  to  the  ground 
to  find  the  body  and  collect  assistance  ;  some  to  watch 
the  tower  base,  others  to  join  them  at  the  top.  Lobley 
returning  with  the  ropes,  the  Minor  Canon  regains  his 
self  command  and  assists  the  two  to  fasten  the  ^opes 
to  a  stanchion  which  Tartar  has  found  there.     Tartar 


114  THE    MURDER    OF 

then  prepares  to  make  the  descent.  He  and  Lobley  test 
the  ropes  and  then,  whilst  Crisparkle  assists  above,  the 
pair  shde  down  ^  them.  Crisparkle  himself  follows  the 
sailors  when  other  help  has  reached  him  on  the  tower 
top.  Not  to  prolong  the  agony,  Jasper  between  them  all 
is  cornered  and  encircled  and  brought  to  solid  ground  a 
handcuffed  prisoner.  Helena,  meanwhile,  they  have 
carried  to  Minor  Canon  Corner,  and  to  the  joyful  sur- 
prise of  all  she  is  found  to  be  still  living.  The  China 
Shepherdess  setting  aside  the  keen  anxiety  for  "  her 
Sept,"  she  feels,  soothingly  tends  Helena  with  heated 
blankets  and  with  cordials  from  the  wondrous  closet.^ 
Slowly  her  persistent  tending  is  rewarded  with  signs  of 
returning  life  and  consciousness  in  the  patient.  Helena 
returns  to  life. 

Poor  Neville's  crushed  remains  are  carried  to  the 
still  open  tomb — as  to  a  mortuary — there  to  await  the 
morning.     No  trace  of  Edwin  has  been  found  within. 

So  ends  the  ■  tragic  night  with  the  mystery  still 
unsolved.     For  where  is  Edwin  ? 


3  Slide  Down.  This  portion  about  the  Tower  top  is  not  inserted 
for  the  mere  sake  of  melodrama.  There  is  more  than  one  hint  of  some 
such  conclusion.  "  Landless  who  was  himself,  I  think,  to  have  perished 
in  assisting  Tartar  to  unmask  and  seize  the  murderer."  Forster, 
Life,  etc.  Compare  also  the  climbing  scenes  at  Neville's  chambers  and 
the  scattered  references  to  the  agihty  of  the  Minor  Canon. 

4  The  Wondevous  Closet.  This  was  a  personal  recollection  of  Charles 
Dickens  himself.  The  closet  entry  in  the  manuscript  reads  : — "  The 
closet,  I  remem.ber,  there  as  a  child,  "  not  "  remember  there  is  a  child." 


9 


EDWIN    DROOD  115 


THE   MANUSCRIPT  ENDS. 


ii6  THE    MURDER    OF 


THE   MANUSCRIPT  ENDS. 

WHAT  more  have  I  to  tell  ?  That  I  have  been  tried 
for  my  crimes,  found  guilty  and  sentenced.  That 
I  have  not  the  courage  to  anticipate  my  doom  or  to 
bear  up  manfully  against  it.  That  I  have  no  compassion, 
no  consolation,  no  hope,  no  friend.  That  I  am  alone 
in  this  stone  dungeon  with  my  evil  spirit,  and  that  I 
die  to-morrow.  To-morrow  ?  The  dawn  has  broken. 
I  die  to-da3^ 

Postscript  in  Another  Hand. 

THIS  book  of  death  was  found  in  the  condemned 
cell  of  Maidstone  Gaol, in  1844,  addressed  simply  "To 

Rosa."  Remaining  unclaimed,  it  found  its  way  at  last 
into  the  Gaol  Museum  of  ghastly  relics.  Had  the  writer 
not  chanced  upon  it  there,  the  story  might  have  remained 
unread  until  the  Day  on  which  all  things  secret  shall  be 
revealed.  On  a  small  stone  slab  in  the  prison  cemetery 
is  cut  "  JOHN  JASPER,  1843." 

It  happens  that  the  writer  knew  some  of  the  persons 
mentioned  in  the  murderer's  tale  (all  long  since  dead), 
and  so  can  add  a  fact  or  two  to  round  their  history  off. 

The  Mystery  was  solved  by  means  of  Durdles' 
curious  gift  (or  skill  as  he  preferred  to  call  it)  of  sounding 
sepulchres.  His  sounding  of  the  elder  Drood's  sarco- 
phagus led  to  the  discovery  of  lime  within  the  cavity 
of  which  he  had  spoken   to  Jasper.     When  this  was 


EDWIN    DROOD  117 

opened  up,  a  ring — a  rose  of  diamonds  and  rubies 
delicately  set  in  gold — flashed  brightly  back  the  rays 
of  lantern  light.  The  lasting  beauty  of  those  stones 
was  almost  cruel.  The  lime  was  analysed,  and  mixed 
with  it  was  found  sufficient  trace  of  mortal  remains  of 
human  origin  to  permit  the  jury  at  the  trial  to  "  find  " 
a  body.  Nay,  more — to  find  the  body  of  Edwin  Drood, 
foully  murdered  by  the  prisoner  in  the  dock,  John  Jasper. 

Among  the  mighty  store  of  wonderful  chains  that 
are  for  ever  forging  day  and  night  in  the  vast  ironworks 
of  time  and  circumstance,  there  was  one  chain  forged 
in  the  moment  of  that  small  conclusion  (which  Edwin 
reached  to  let  the  jewels  lie  unspoken  of  in  his  breast), 
which  was  riveted  to  the  foundations  of  heaven  and 
earth,  and  gifted  with  invincible  force  to  hold  and  drag. 
That  chain,  riveted  by  the  ring  to  the  earth's  foundations, 
and  linked  by  eternal  justice  to  the  heavens,  held  Jasper 
fast  and  dragged  him  to  the  gallows.  But  for  that 
small  conclusion  Jasper  might  not  have  been  convicted 
even  of  Neville's  murder,  which  might  have  been  an 
accident,  for  no  one  saw  him  given  the  fatal  push. 

Helena  did  not  die.  Thanks  (as  the  China  Shep- 
herdess to  her  dying  day  declared),  to  the  magic  of  the 
marvellous  closet  and  its  cordials  she  soon,  and  quite 
recovered.  Indeed  she  lived  to  call  the  Minor  Canon 
(then  the  Dean)  "  her  "  Sept  and  the  China  Shepherdess 
"  Mamma." 

Rosa  never  received  a  third  proposal.  Man  proposes 
but  .  .  .  Rosa  was  disposed  of  to  Lieutenant 
Tartar  on  the  day  when,  crossing  the  wide  street  of 
Holborn,  on  the  sailor's  arm,  and  happening  to  raise 


ii8  THE    MURDER    OF 

her  eyes  to  his  far-seeing  blue  ones  looking,  she 
thought,  as  if  they  had  been  used  to  watch  danger  afar 
off,  and  to  watch  it  without  flinching  drawing  nearer 
and  nearer,  her  dark  eyes  saw  with  sudden  embarrass- 
ment, that  he  too  seemed  to  be  thinking  something  about 
them.  This  a  little  confused  Rosebud,  and  may  account 
for  her  never  afterwards  quite  knowing  how,  formally,  he 
became  the  Lord  High  Admiral,  and  she  became  His  Lady, 
the  First  Fairy  of  the  Sea.  The  ring  he  put  upon  her 
finger  was  a  plain  gold  circle.  The  tragic  ring  of  dia- 
monds and  rubies  returned  undimmed  to  Mr.  Grewgious' 
keeping.     Who  has  it  now,  I  wonder  ? 


EDWIN    DROOD  119 


APPENDICES. 


120  THE    MURDER    OF 


APPENDIX   I. 
EXTRINSIC  EVIDENCE. 

We  know  from  Charles  Dickens  himself,  from  his  son,  and  from  his 
biographer,  that  Jasper  did  murder  Edwin  Drood.  We  know  from  his 
illustrator  how  he  murdered  him. 

(i)  Dickens'  Manuscript  Notes.  In  his  own  handwriting,  and  for 
his  own  eye  alone,  Dickens  wrote  {a)  "  Murder  very  far  oS,"  and 
{b)  "  Lay  the  ground  for  the  manner  of  the  murder  to  come  out  at  last." 

(2)  "  Mr.  Charles  Dickens  informed  me  .  .  .  that  Edwin 
Drood  was  dead.  His  (Mr.  Dickens')  father  told  him  so  himself." 
W.  R.  Hughes  :    A  Week's  Tramp  in  Dickens  Land. 

(3)  "The  story  .  .  was  to  be  that  of  the  miirder  of  a  nephew  by 
his  uncle  ;  discovery  by  the  murderer  of  the  utter  needlessness  of  the 
murder  for  its  object  was  to  follow  hard  upon  commission  of  the  deed." 
Forster  :    Life  of  Charles  Dickens. 

(4)  We  know  from  Sir  Luke  Fildes  exactly  how  Jasper  murdered 
Edwin.  "  I  must  have  the  double  necktie  !  It  is  necessary,  for 
Jasper  strangles  Edwin  Drood  with  it."  This  was  the  answer  Dickens 
gave  when  his  attention  was  called  to  the  change  he  had  made  in 
Jasper's  dress  from  a  little  black  tie  once  round  the  neck  to  a  large 
black  scarf  of  strong  close  woven  silk,  slung  loosely  round  it.  (See 
the  artist's  very  important  and  interesting  letter  to  The  Times  on  this 
subject  in  October,  1905). 


APPENDIX  II. 
THE  DATE  OF  THE  STORY. 

The  murder  took  place  precisely  at  midnight,  24-25  December, 
1842.  The  reader  is  no  doubt  astonished  at  this  confident  assertion. 
So  was  the  author  to  discover  the  evidence  on  which  he  bases  it. 

Speaking  approximately,  the  book  itself  proves  the  disappearance 
to  have  been  on  a  Christmas  Eve  which  was  a  Saturday.  If  any  precise 
year  was  intended,  therefore,  it  must  have  been  one  in  which  Christmas 
Day  fell  upon  a  Sunday.  We  can  narrow  the  choice  of  year  still  further. 
In  those  days  there  was  no  railway  to  Cloisterham,  and  Mr.  Sapsea 
said  there  never  would  be.  Some  remote  fragment  of  main  line  to 
somewhere  else,  there  was.  Now  Christmas  fell  upon  a  Sunday  in 
1836,  in   1842   and  in   1853.      In  1836  no  remote  fragment  of  line  to 


EDWIN    DROOD  121 


anywhere  else  approached  near  Rochester..  .By  1853  the  line  to  Strood 
was  built.  The  line  to  Strood  cannot  have  been  the  "  fragment  " 
referred  to.  It  was  not  remote.  It  was  not  a  fragment  of  main  line 
to  anywhere  else.  It  could  not  have  so  unsettled  Rochester  traffic  that 
the  traffic  deserting  the  high  road,  came  sneaking  in  from  an  unprece- 
dented part  of  the  country  by  a  back  stable  way.  If  any  precise  year 
was  intended  therefore,  it  can  only  have  been   1842.     But  was  it  ? 

In  the  year  of  the  book  (if  it  had  a  year),  no  neighbouring  archi- 
tecture of  lofty  proportions  had  arisen  to  overshadow  Staple  Inn. 
The  Westering  sun  bestowed  bright  glances  on  it  and  the  South-west 
wind  blew  into  it  unimpeded.  By  1853,  this  was  no  longer  so.  The 
lofty  building  which  is  now  the  Patent  Office  standing  in  what  was 
once  the  garden  of  the  Inn  was  planned  in  1843,  and  built  soon  after. 
Later  the  Birkbeck  Buildings  shut  out  the  Western  sun. 

Six  months  or  so  after  the  murder,  Mr.  Crisparkle  and  Neville  dined 
together  in  London  and  then  parted  at  the  yet  unfinished  and  un- 
developed railway  station  ;  Mr.  Crisparkle  to  get  home  to  Rochester. 
The  British  Almanac  for  the  previous  year,  1842,  contains  this  entry  : 
"  The  great  station  at  London  Bridge,  for  the  joint  use  of  the  Brighton, 
South  Eastern  and  Croydon  companies,  and  the  works  connected  with 
it,  are  in  rapid  progress,  but  any  description  of  them  must  be  deferred 
until  their  completion." 

Finally.  By  1842,  a  fragment  of  the  Main  Line  to  Maidstone  had 
been  completed  and  was  in  use  as  far  as  a  station  then  called  "  Maid- 
stone Road,"  which  will  be  seen  from  the  map  to  be  the  point  on  that 
line  nearest  to  Rochester.  "  I  lost  ye  last,  where  that  omnibus  you  got 
into  nigh  your  journey's  end  phed  betwixt  the  station  and  the  place," 
the  opium  woman  apostrophises  Jasper.  Maidstone  Road  was  "  the 
station,"  and  Rochester  "  the  place."  The  omnibus  containing 
Jasper  came  sneaking  in  to  Rochester  from  this  unprecedented  part 
of  the  country  (the  new  railway  station)  by  a  back  stable  way  which 
was  then  Crow  or  Crau  Lane,  but  is  now  the  Maidstone  Road. 

The  year  1842,  then,  is  a  probable  year  ;  it  is  the  only  possible 
year  ;  and  it  is  a  year  which  accords  in  a  quite  remarkable  fashion 
with  a  number  of  hints  contained  in  the  book.  In  fact  the  assertion 
is  justified  that  1842  was  the  year  intended  by  Dickens. 


APPENDIX   III. 
THE  DATCHERY   ASSUMPTION. 

Datchery,  like  Mr.  Nadgett  the  investigator  in  "  Martin  Chuzzle- 
wit,"  is  "  a  man  of  mystery."  Not  that  there  is  any  doubt  about  his 
occupation.  The  idle  man  is  busy  watching  Jasper.  The  buffer  of 
an  easy  temper  is  playing  the  detective.     His  reason  for  this  busy 


122  THE    MURDER    OF 


idleness  is  what  requires  an  explanation — that,  and  who  he  is  himself. 
He  might  be  Bazzard,  but  in  character  he  is  that  gloomy  self-centred 
clerk's  antithesis.  He  might  be  Edwin  were  not  Edwin  dead.  He 
might  be  Helena,  were  she  not  a  woman.  He  may  be  quite  a  stranger 
to  the  story.  But  the  author  is  convinced  that  Datchery  is  Tartar. 
If  Datchery  is  not  Tartar,  we  have  perforce,  another  mystery  with 
which  to  battle.  Why  did  Tartar — who  was  in  love  with  Rosa,  and 
with  whom  Rosa  was  in  love,  and  who  was  to  marry  Rosa,  and  whose 
chambers  were  within  ten  minutes'  walk  of  Rosa's  lodgings,  and  who 
was  daily  and  hourly  anticipated  there  by  Rosa — never  call  on  Rosa 
at  the  Billickin's  ? 

If  Tartar  is  not  Datchery,  again,  why  is  there  nothing  inconsistent 
in  the  personal  descriptions  of  the  two  men  ?  Why  in  drawing  one  of 
them  is  it  possible  to  describe  the  pair  ?  Why  are  their  tastes  odd  and 
identical  ?  Why  do  these  two  characters  employ  closely  similar  phrases 
of  polite  apology  ten  times  and  all  the  other  characters  that  Dickens 
drew  not  even  once  ?  In  a  word  why  are  their  personalities  so  similar 
that  a  critic  who  (for  other  reasons)  believed  their  identification  to  be 
impossible  yet  could  write  "  Datchery's  speech  and  bearing  have  a 
distinct  individuahty  resembling  that  of  no  other  person  in  the  story 
except  Tartar  ?  " 

The  Tartar  theory  has  had  one,  and  only  one,  serious  objection 

brought  against  it.     That  objection  is  the  sequence  of  the  chapters. 

Chapter    XVII.      Tartar  introduces  himself  to  Landless  and  to  us. 

Datchery  appears  at  Cloisterham. 

Jasper  proposes  to  Rosa  who  faints  in  going 

upstairs. 
Rosa  flees  to  Staple  Inn  and  confides  in  Mr. 

Grewgious. 
Rosa  and  Tartar  meet  for  the  first  time  and 
fall  in  love. 

The  explanation  of  the  difficulty  seems  to  be  that  Dickens  inten- 
tionally departed  from  strict  chronology  in  the  marshaUing  of  his 
Chapters.  He  jumps  from  place  to  place  and  not  from  time  to  time. 
Authors  often  do. 

Chronologically  everything  hinges  on  the  opening  words  of  the 
Chapter  that  introduces  Datchery  to  Cloisterham. 

"  At  about  this  time  a  stranger  appeared  in  Cloisterham."  At 
about  what  time  ?  When  the  words  were  written  the  Chapter  followed 
Rosa's  fainting  fit.  They  were  not  altered  when  the  Chapter  (for  some 
reason  possibly  connected   with  the  monthly  issues)  was  put  earher. 

At  about  the  time  of  Rosa's  fainting,  then,  Datchery  appeared  in 
Rochester.  Why  not  ?  Rosa  fainted  on  Monday,  July  3rd.  On 
Tuesday,  she  rnet  Tartar.  On  Wednesday,  he  vanished  from  the 
story  as  London-Tartar,  and  her  gritty  stage  began.     On  this  same 


Chapter 

XVIII, 

Chapter 

XIX. 

Chapter 

XX. 

Chapter 

XXI. 

EDWIN    DROOD  123 


Wednesday,  he  became  the  man  of  mystery  at  Rochester.  Does  not 
an  event  on  Wednesday  occur  "  at  about  the  time  "  of  one  on  Monday  ? 
For  a  somewhat  more  detailed  presentation  of  "  The  Case  for 
Tartar  "  the  author  refers  the  reader  to  the  pages  of  The  Dickensian. 
In  them  will  be  found  articles  in  January  1906,  by  Mr.  G.  F.  Gadd, 
and  in  October,  1919,  by  the  present  author. 


APPENDIX   IV. 
DURDLES^   YARD. 

So  far  as  the  author's  researches  have  extended,  no  one  yet  has 
identified  the  site  of  Durdles'  house. 

Durdles,  it  will  be  remembered,  was  a  stonemason,  chiefly  in  the 
gravestone,  tomb,  and  monument  way,  who  lived  in  a  little  antiquated 
hole  of  a  house  that  was  never  finished,  and  was  supposed  to  be  built 
so  far  of  stones  stolen  from  the  City  wall.  To  this  abode  there  was  an 
approach  ankle  deep  in  stone  chips,  and  resembling  a  petrified  grove  of 
tomb  stones,  urns,  draperies  and  broken  columns  in  all  stages  of  sculp- 
ture. By  the  yard  gate  there  lay,  on  the  night  of  the  unaccountable 
expedition,  a  mound  of  quick-lime,  "  Quick  enough  to  eat  your  boots, 
with  a  little  handy  stirring,  quick  enough  to  eat  your  bones." 

Now,  according  to  Forster,  "  by  means  of  a  gold  ring  which  had 
resisted  the  corrosive  effects  of  the  lime  into  which  he  had  thrown  the 
body,  not  only  the  person  murdered  was  to  be  identified,  but  the  locality 
of  the  crime,  and  the  man  who  had  committed  it." 

How,  then,  came  the  lime  from  Durdles'  Yard  into  the  place  of 
sepulture  ?  In  Procter's  opinion,  "  either  then,  while  Durdles  slept  " 
(in  the  crypt  on  the  night  of  the  unaccountable  expedition)  "  or  on  the 
night  of  the  murder,  Jasper  procured  some  of  this  quick-lime  and  put 
it  in  Mrs.  Sapsea's  tomb."  This  opinion  the  present  author  shares. 
By  the  majority,  of  recent  students  of  the  Mystery,  however,  this 
hypothesis  has  been  scouted  on  the  grounds  thus  forcefully  stated  by 
Professor  Henry  Jackson  in  his  invaluable  study  "  About  Edwin 
Drood." 

"  I  demur  altogether  to  the  hypothesis  which  Mr.  Lang  shares  with 
Mr.  Procter,  that  Jasper  brought  quick-lime  in  a  wheel  barrow  from  one 
end  of  Cloisterham  to  the  other.  Anyone  who  is  acquainted  with 
Rochester  will  perceive  that  the  route  through  the  Monk's  Vineyard 
would  have  dangers  as  great  as  those  of  the  route  along  the  High 
Street  though  no  doubt  of  a  different  kind." 

The  author  recalls  the  tale  of  a  logic  lecturer  at  an  Oxford  College, 
who  (by  way  of  illustrating  the  many  means  of  escape  from  a  logical 
dilemma),  notionally  blocked  the  doors  and  windows  of  the  Hall  in 
which  he  was  lecturing  with  armed  murderers,  and  then  lighted  an 


124  THE    MURDER    OF 


inextinguishable  fire  within.  Having  convinced  his  audience  that  he 
had  left  himself  no  means  of  escape,  he  next  touched  a  secret  spring 
in  the  oak  panneliing  behind  him  and  concluded  his  lecture  by  dis- 
appearing from  the  room. 

It  is  even  so  with  the  dilemma  with  which  Dickens  has  puzzled 
Professor  Jackson  and  the  rest.  From  the  graveyard  there  are  but 
two  orthodox  approaches  to  Durdles'  hole-in-the-wall — the  one  via 
the  Vines,  the  other  through  the  High  Street.  Both  routes  are  im- 
possible for  the  secret  carriage  of  quick-lime.  But  a  third  and  hidden 
route  offers  every  facility.  For  in  truth  Durdles'  unfinished  house 
which  actually  abuts  on  the  Precincts,  may  be  described  in  a  sense  as 
"  over-looking  the  churchyard."  Dickens  so  described  it  himself  in 
his  manuscript,  but  deleted  the  description  before  printing  the  number, 
perhaps  from  the  fear  that  it  gave  too  much  away  at  that  stage. 

A  glance  at  the  plan  of  Rochester  will  shew  the  route  taken  by 
Jasper  in  carrying  the  lime  to  the  grave  which  he  intended  for  Edwin's 
occupation.  The  way  is  short,  secret  and  easy,  and  leads  through  that 
"  stillest  part  which  the  Cathedral  overshadows,"  to  which  Jasper  paid 
such  unaccountable  attention.  Furthermore  the  lime  explains  why  it 
was  necessary  for  Jasper  to  arrange  that  Durdles  should  be  away  from 
home  on  that  night,  and  also  why  he  apprised  the  Dean  (whose  entrance 
drive  he  would  have  to  use)  of  his  intention  to  engage  in  these  nocturnal 
prowlings.     The  whole  device  is  redolent  of  the  genius  of  simplicity. 

The  author  places  Durdles'  Yard  next  to  what  is  called  "  the  Old 
Deanery."  There  used  to  be  a  builder's  yard  here,  and  in  a  painting 
in  the  Nun's  house,  it  is  indicated  as  such.  The  Old  Deanery,  which  is 
well  worth  a  visit  for  its  own  sake,  is  nowll  bookshop,  and  appears  to  be 
in  the  hands  of  a  proprietor  who  takes  a  genuine  interest  in  its  architec- 
ture and  associations.  The  entrance  gate  to  the  yard  opens  out  on  to  the 
High  Street,  as  that  of  Durdles'  yard  must  have  done.  For  when  Jasper 
and  he,  on  their  way  back  via  the  Vines,  came  under  the  victorious 
fire  of  Deputy  who  was  standing  outside  the  Tra,vellers'  Twopenny, 
Jasper  "  turns  the  corner  into  safety  and  takes  Jasper  home."  This 
corner  was  the  junction  of  Crau  Lane,  with  the  High  Street  and  after 
Durdles  had  stumbled  up  his  stony  yard  to  bed,  Jasper  returned  to 
his  Gatehouse  "by  another  way,"  which  was  clearly  the  High  Street 
also. 

APPENDIX   V. 
THE   COVER. 

In  a  suggestive  article  in  The  Dickensian  for  January,  Mr. 
Willoughby  Matchett  lays  it  down  that  "  the  true  explanation  of  the 
cover  lies  less  in  the  actual — that  bee  in  the  bonnet  of  all  other  solvers — 
than  in  the  emblematical."     Is  Mr.  Matchett  right  in  this  ?     Are  the 


EDWIN    DROOD  125 


vignettes  on  the  cover  of  purely  emblematical  significance  or  were  they 
actual  scenes  in  the  story  to  be  written  ?  Mr.  Matchett  adds  "  Actual 
scenes  were  not  the  Dickens'  custom."  But  in  this  he  is  wrong. 
Amongst  much  emblematical  matter  woven  into  the  decorative  covers 
of  Dickens'  earlier  books,  several  actual  scenes  are  found.  The  reader 
can  verify  this  statement  by  consulting  Mr.  Matz  Memorial  Edition 
of  Forster's  "  Life  of  Charles  Dickens."  The  covers  are  most  con- 
veniently collected  there. 

The  truth  is  that  the  Drood  cover  is  both  emblematical  and  actual. 
The  author's  reading  of  it  is  as  follows  : — 

Of  the  corner  pieces,  the  top  two  are  pure  emblems  ;  the  bottom 
pair  are  characters  in  the  story — a  trifle  idealized  perhaps.  At  the  top, 
the  spirit  of  happiness  and  roses  is  opposed  by  the  sinister  fury  with 
a  dagger.  At  the  bottom,  while  the  Princess  Puffer  smokes  her  pipe 
in  one  corner,  Jack-Chinaman-t'other-side-the-court  enjoys  his  in  the 
other. 

On  its  sinister  side,  the  cover  is  thorny  and  male  ;  on  its  dexter 
side  it  is  rosy  and  predominantly  female.  Centrally,  beneath  the  title, 
is  Durdles  dinner  bundle  surmounted  by  crossed  key  and  spade.  The 
rest  of  the  cover  is  occupied  by  actual  scenes  of  which  there  are  five. 

(i)  In  the  Nave  of  the  Cathedral  coming  out  from  service  with  the 
choir,  Jasper  scrutinizes  Rosa  and  Edwin  walking  arm-in-arm  not  over- 
lovingly.     Jasper's  gaze  is  fixed  on  Rosa  who  looks  away  from  him. 

(2)  A  girl  is  studying  a  placard  headed  "  LOST."  The  author 
does  not  understand  this  scene,  unless  it  is  Rosa  looking  at  one  of 
Jasper's  advertisements  of  Edwin's  disappearance. 

(3)  A  kneehng  figure  with  moustache  kisses  the  hand  of  a  girl  in 
a  garden  ;  she,  meanwhile,  toys  with  a  streamer  from  her  hat  in 
apparent  embarrassment  or  boredom.  This  is  Neville  proposing  to 
Rosa  in  the  garden  of  Staple  Inn. 

{4)  A  dark  place  in  which  a  door  has  just  been  opened,  admitting 
Jasper  holding  on  high  a  lantern.  In  the  midst  stands  a  statuesque 
figure  dressed  in  a  man's  hat  and  a  long  coat  and  bearing  some  resem- 
blance to  the  picture  of  Edwin  higher  on  the  cover.  Jasper  seeking 
the  ring  finds  Helena  awaiting  him  there,  in  the  tomb,  dressed  to 
resemble  Edwin  in  Neville's  garb. 

(5)  Three  figures  chmb  a  winding  staircase  two  steps  at  a  time 
pointing  upwards  as  they  go.  They  are  Crisparkle,  Lobley  and 
Datchery  (Tartar),  pursuing  Jasper  up  the  staircase  of  the  Tower. 


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